The Paranormal Odds
by BoredBrunette
Summary: WARNING: This fic contains three odd girls [Yes, they're OCs] with their own villian to deal with [OC], Waffle Pudding, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Linkin Park songs, and short chapters. The author is insane & stupid at times. Read at your own risk.
1. When it's over

**WARNING: Extremely long author's note ahead! Scroll past all the text that's in bold if you don't want to read it.**

**If you think _this _fic is stupid, you should have read my other one ::rolls eyes::. God, it was so full of fluff that the poor people who actually read it were suffocated. Anyways, lucky for you that this version is much better. I reeeeeally hope you like it, but I hope even more that you review. Flame, if you must, but keep in mind that this is my first fic.ADVERTISEMENT: Do you have a purple elf infestation? Call The Elf Busters! We'll send one of our fantastic purple elf exterminators over to help you regain control over your household!**

**Hehe, sorry about the ad above, but poor Bob (the llama) informed me that his job wasn't getting much publicity and therefore not much business, so I promised to help out. POOR BOB!! He caught Anne cheating on him with a BULL and he's been depressed ever since!! **

**Oh, and, by the way, here's a disclaimer although since this is a fanfiction website I really don't think it's needed:**

**Disclaimer: Miss Rowling owns all of the Harry Potter characters, not I. If I did, I'd be working on a new book, not writing fanfiction. Bita owns Bita, Tiffany owns Tiffany, and Rachelle owns Rachelle and Matt. All other characters were brought from Odd Land and forced to live in this fic.**

**Now, I must go because -**

**AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH**

**::screams bloody murder::**

**THE**

**PURPLE**

**BAGS**

**ARE**

**COMING!!!**

**RUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!**

**RUUUUUUUUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!**

**WHATEVER YOU DO**

**DON'T**

**ROTATE**

**THE**

**CLOCK!!!!**

**Thank you.**

**Now, on to the story.**

**Really.**

**I mean it this time.**

**Here it is.**

**(drumroll)**

**LINKIN PARK ROCKS!!**

**To anyone who thinks otherwise...MAY THE PURPLE BAGS HAUNT YOU FOREVER!!!! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

**Chapter 1 **

Rachelle, Bita, and Tiffany ran as fast as they could to P.E. They were a bit annoyed when they realized that as soon as they reached the gym for their most hated class, they would be going outside onto the track to run yet again as fast as they could because it was track season.

"I despise P.E.," Tiffany said with dismay as the three friends entered the girls' locker room and began twirling the combination locks that secured the small, blue lockers that held their P.E. uniforms.

"Ugh, me too," Rachelle agreed.

"So do the lemons," said Bita.

"You mean _did_. The lemons are DEAD, Bita," Tiffany informed her.

Bita gasped. "No!"

"Yes," Tiffany said, examining a small hole in her P.E. shorts. "Waffle Pudding ate them."

"_All_ of them?" Bita asked, completely horrified.

"Mmhmm," Rachelle answered solemnly.

Conversations such as these (among other things) were the cause of everyone calling the three friends The Odds. Of course, the girls weren't offended, not at all. In fact, they enjoyed the name and encouraged people to call them by it.

Bita looked as if she were about to cry but didn't get the chance as Coach Nordman walked swiftly through the door. Coach Nordman was short, squat, with short-blonde hair and Rachelle said she looked like a cross between Steve Irwin and a duckie.

"Hurry up girls, we have a lot to do today. We're having a test soon, so we'll be running laps around the track the whole period," said the gym teacher cheerfully as she made a note on the clipboard she was carrying.

The whole class groaned. Usually they only ran four laps, and that only took about twenty minutes. But a whole forty-five minutes of running would be a living hell.

"Well Bita, you don't have to worry about missing the lemons any more. We're about to die and join them on the other side," Tiffany said with a sigh.

"You know, I might pretend to faint and blame it on a heatstroke or something," Rachelle said thoughtfully, though neither she nor her two friends believed it. Rachelle had never lied to a teacher or broken any school rules in her life and she wasn't at all proud of it.

Everyone finished changing into their P.E. uniforms, walked into the gym, and headed to the pair of double doors that led to the school's track. It was only about eleven minutes after Coach Nordman blew her whistle - the signal for everyone to start running - that a short, plump student-aide from the attendance office came up to the coach and handed her three notes to pull three girls out of class. Apparently their guardian was here to pick them up early.

Rachelle noticed this and hit Tiffany in the arm.

"Wishful thinking," said Tiffany, looking to where Rachelle was pointing. "Why would Mr. Vilner be picking us up early?"

Mr. Vilner was The Odds' guardian. He often visited orphanages, looking for special children. He took the three girls one day, realizing at once that they were exactly what he was looking for. Their real parents had abandoned them years ago, shortly after they were born. Mr. Vilner was also The Odds' special instructor. He taught them at a special school for the paranormally gifted. This school's name was Estaln. The girls attended the school in order to learn how to properly use their powers. They only went on weekends though, because Mr. Vilner believed they should go to a normal school on weekdays so they could learn everything they needed to learn for the real world and also so they could make new friends. Fat chance of the latter ever happening. The only people the three girls had ever trusted were each other.

Each of The Odds had their own special powers. Tiffany was clairvoyant and could read a whole book just by touching the cover for a moment, retaining all of the information thanks to her photographic memory, Bita could levitate and astral project, Rachelle was pyrokinetic and had telekinesis, and all three girls had telepathy which often came in handy for private conversations.

"But what other three people would leave at the same time?" Rachelle asked.

"Hmm. You _do_ have a point…" Tiffany said.

Coach Nordman looked at the three blue slips in her hand and called the names of the three girls that were to leave.

"Rachel, Bita, and Tiffany!" she yelled.

"MY…NAME…IS…RACHELLE, COACH DUCKIE!!!" Rachelle practically screamed, pronouncing every single syllable very slowly as she and her two best friends gladly stopped running and made their way toward Coach Coleman.

"Sorry, Rachelle," Coach Nordman said, apparently not hearing Rachelle call her "Coach Duckie".

The three girls hurried back to the gym, then the locker room where they quickly changed back to their normal clothes, all the while thinking about how very lucky they were. Then they ran to their regular lockers, grabbed their backpacks, and ran to the attendance office where Mr. Vilner was waiting for them. It seemed as if they had spent half of their lives running. They ran from class to class every weekday. They ran to Estaln - which also served as their home - after their normal school was over. But, most of all, they ran from the execrable Zastrin.

Zastrin had found out about the girls' powers very recently. How, they didn't know. All they knew was what Mr. Vilner told them, and that was the fact that Zastrin had gone after and killed many people before for apparently no reason. He also told them that Zastrin was definitely after them, suddenly appearing in areas near wherever The Odds happened to be, and that he was after their powers. How did Mr. Vilner know what Zastrin was after? The Odds didn't know. Why exactly would Zastrin pursue the girls just because they had paranormal powers? They didn't know that either, but the way Mr. Vilner talked about it, it seemed that Zastrin was going to somehow attempt to _steal_ their powers.

The Odds finally made it to the attendance office where Mr. Vilner was waiting with a look on his face that was a mixture of horror, shock, and fear.

"Finally! I was worried something happened to you…" he said, grabbing Rachelle and Bita by the arm. He then tried to grab Tiffany's arm with the same hand that held Rachelle's arm, but gave up and motioned for her to just follow behind them.

"Why would something happen to us on the walk from the gym to here?" Rachelle asked with a combination of curiosity and worry.

"I'll explain it all in the car," replied Mr. Vilner, and that was the end of that.

Indeed, Mr. Vilner explained everything in the car, and what he told the girls was enough to make them rethink their earlier thought of being very lucky. 


	2. That's the time I fall in love again

**Chapter 2**

"We have reason to believe Zastrin is nearby," Mr. Vilner said simply.

The three girls were quiet for a moment.

"How do you know?" Rachelle asked, breaking the silence.

"That is classified information. Besides, it's not important. The point is, Zastrin is close," Mr. Vilner said quickly.

"What are we going to do?" Tiffany asked quietly.

"Well…we have a few options. First, we can let you continue your normal lives, pretending nothing is wrong and just pray that Zastrin doesn't come after you. Maybe he's here on holiday," Mr. Vilner suggested. The three girls almost laughed.

"No," Rachelle said.

"Second, we can send someone after him," Mr. Vilner continued.

"He's a psychotic murderer!" Tiffany exclaimed. "He'll kill anyone sent after him."

"And third, we can send you off somewhere far, far away where he won't find you."

"That sounds good," Bita said cheerfully, as if they were talking about what would be served for dinner and not a life or death situation.

"But where would we go?" Rachelle asked.

"I think…well, I know a man named Albus Dumbledore. He runs a school for witchcraft and wizardry. I know that you three aren't witches, but Hogwarts – that's the school – is probably the safest place in the world. Dumbledore doesn't usually let non-magical people into the school, but he and I are pretty good friends, so I think he'll make an exception for you," said Mr. Vilner.

"There's a school for witches and wizards?!" Rachelle said incredulously.

"Yes, I'll tell you all about it later. Do you want to go or not?" Mr. Vilner asked.

The three friends thought for the whole way back to Estaln.

"Well…" Tiffany began finally, as the group headed for the living area of the school. "I guess we don't have any other choice, do we?"

"Yeah," Rachelle agreed.

"POOR LEMONS!!!" burst out Bita, who began to sob uncontrollably.

Mr. Vilner shot an odd glance at Bita, and as Rachelle tried to comfort her, he told them what he knew about Hogwarts. It was a very old school, the best in the world for witchcraft and wizardry. The girls grew excited, despite their situation.

"Wait…Are we going to be attending classes or just staying in one of the rooms?" Rachelle asked suddenly, handing Bita a box of tissues when they arrived in the room that the three girls shared.

"That's up to you," said Mr. Vilner. "If you don't attend classes, you will probably be doing some kind of manual labor. I doubt Dumbledore will let you just sit around all day doing nothing while he tries his best to keep Zastrin away. So what's it gonna be? Classes or work?"

"Classes," said Rachelle and Tiffany promptly.

"Ok, then. I'm going to go see if I can find someone who owns an owl so I can contact Dumbledore…I'll be back soon," said Mr. Vilner, leaving the girls in bewilderment as to why in the world he needed an owl to contact Dumbledore.

"While I'm out," he added, "I'll see if I can find some books about the magical world and Hogwarts. I suggest you three call some friends from school to see if they can gather all of your belongings that are still at school and bring them over for you. I already had you officially removed from school's roll because term at Hogwarts is about to begin on the first. Witches and wizards start learning magic at the age of eleven, so you've missed a lot the past two years, but I'm sure the teachers will set you up with some private lessons over the weekends so you can catch up."

As Mr. Vilner left the room, shutting the door behind him with a firm thud, the three girls stared at each other in amazement.

"I wonder what classes witches and wizards are taught?" said Tiffany thoughtfully.

"Yeah. I wonder if they have grades and stuff?" Bita sniffed.

"I wonder if we have pie?" said Rachelle with a faraway look in her eyes.

---------

During dinner that night the girls had a shocking experience. They were sitting around the table, finishing their dinner and Mrs. Sniggle – a round woman in her mid-fifties who was the school cook – was pulling a pie out of the oven (to Rachelle's delight) when a large, brown owl swooped in through the open window.

The girls could do no more than stare with their mouths hanging open as the owl dropped a letter onto Mr. Vilner's plate, flew over to the oven and pecked the pie Mrs. Sniggle was holding (Mrs. Sniggle then dropped the pie and screamed), and flew back out of the window.

"Oh look, Dumbledore replied already. That was oddly prompt," Mr. Vilner stated, opening the letter the owl had dropped on his plate as if what had happened only moments before was as normal as the telephone ringing.

"What…" Rachelle began. She was going to ask, "What the hell just happened?" but was too shocked to finish.

"Why…" Tiffany started to say. She was going to ask, "Why did that owl deliver a letter?" but was too flabbergasted to continue

"Do…" started Bita, but just the thought of the lemons' death made her too depressed to ask, "Do lemons fly through the air like monkeys?"

"Oh, that's how magical people have their letters delivered," Mr. Vilner explained at their shocked (and depressed) looks.

"Wow," Rachelle said.

"Girls, go and get packed. You're to leave on a plane to London first thing in the morning," Mr. Vilner ordered as he finished the letter.

The girls stood and walked to their room, passing a shaken-looking Mrs. Sniggle, without asking any questions because when Mr. Vilner ordered them to do something, he expected them to do it that moment, without any delay.

The girls may not have asked any questions, but there were plenty buzzing through their heads, like _Why are we going all the way to London?_ _Is there anything else surprising, like the owls, that Mr. Vilner should have told us about? Why did Mrs. Sniggle have to drop the pie?_ But most of all, the question the girls wanted answered was _Will Zastrin follow us to Hogwarts?_


	3. When it's over

**Chapter 3**

"Found anything interesting yet?" Rachelle asked Tiffany when the three girls were back in their room. Rachelle and Bita were packing as Tiffany sat on her bed reading (if you can call touching books for a second and retaining all of the information "reading") books about Hogwarts that Mr. Vilner had given them before dinner.

"Well…I don't know if I should tell you," Tiffany began slowly.

"What is it?" Bita asked worriedly. "Does Waffle Pudding go to Hogwarts?"

"No, worse. Since electronics are non-magical items…they're kind of…banned from Hogwarts. If you bring something electronic inside the school grounds it won't work," Tiffany said, sadly glancing over at her CD player, which was her most beloved item.

"Ugh. That's not fair," Rachelle said, matching Tiffany's depressed glance, as she looked over at her laptop which Mr. Vilner had kindly bought her last Christmas.

"Oh, that's ok," said Bita, looking cheerfully at the stuffed lemon that lay on her bed.

"Everything else is just kind of what you'd expect," Tiffany went on. "They – _we –_ have classes like Transfiguration, History of Magic, Charms…stuff like that. The uniform is sets of robes; we have the weekends off, just like normal school…that's basically it…for now, anyways. I haven't read all of the books yet, but I think I should start packing."

"Wait a second…aren't we supposed to have textbooks and stuff? And what about the robes you mentioned? Where are we going to get those?" Rachelle asked.

As if on cue, Mr. Vilner walked swiftly through the door holding three bags.

"Here you go," he said, handing one bag to each of the girls. "I bought all of the things you will need a couple of weeks ago."

"_A couple of weeks ago?_" Rachelle asked, shocked. "Exactly how long have you been planning this?"

"For a while. I didn't want to scare you girls, so I didn't tell you about Zastrin until we had a plan set up for you," Mr. Vilner explained. "Oh, there's something I should tell you. About the wands…usually you're supposed to pick out your own. You get the best results that way. But, since results don't matter in your situation and we didn't have time to bring you to the wand shop, I picked them out for you. That means that you're going to have to work extra hard in your classes."

"Wait…isn't the wand shop in London?" Tiffany asked, remembering what she had read about Hogwarts school supplies.

"Yes…" Mr. Vilner said slowly.

"Well, how did you go all the way to London and back a couple of weeks ago without us noticing?" she continued.

"I sent a friend," said Mr. Vilner smoothly.

"But you just said that _you_ picked out the wands for us," Tiffany pressed.

"You better hurry up and finish packing, you have a flight at midnight," Mr. Vilner said quickly over his shoulder as he left the room.

"He's acting weird…" Tiffany said.

"Yeah. But hey, he's Mr. Vilner," said Rachelle.

Tiffany said, "That's true…but he's _still_ acting weird. Oh well."

The three girls finished packing and sat on their beds with fluttery stomachs as the time for them to go to the airport drew nearer and nearer.

Finally it was eleven o' clock and Mr. Vilner walked into the room and announced that was time for them to be going. They crowded into Mr. Vilner's car and started off to the downtown airport, where the plane that would bring them to their new lives was being prepared to take flight.


	4. That's the time you're in my heart again

**Chapter 4**

"BOOM!" Rachelle yelled, trying to wake up Bita.

The three friends were at the airport alone – Mr. Vilner had left before their flight so he could "attend to more important business" – and Bita had fallen asleep waiting for their flight to be called for boarding.

But now, their flight had been called for at least ten minutes, so everyone who was going on the same flight was already either in line to have their tickets checked or already on the plane.

"I have an idea," said Tiffany, slowly bringing her foot back and bringing it forward it again to make contact with Bita's shin. Bita continued snoring and had no reaction.

"Oh the hell with this," said Rachelle angrily, bringing her own foot back, but bringing it forward much faster than Tiffany had and kicked Bita very hard.

"DAMN YOU WAFFLE PUDDING!" cursed Bita as she shot up out of her chair in pain. "Ow," she added as an afterthought.

"Wow. Bita cussed," Tiffany said, astonished.

"Ok, let's go. They called our plane a long time ago and if we miss the flight I will personally strangle you, Bita," Rachelle said, grabbing her bag and rushing towards the gate with her two friends.

---------

On the plane, the three girls each found a different way to entertain themselves. Tiffany didn't take off her CD player for the same reason Rachelle didn't put down her laptop – they were both worried about what it would be like at Hogwarts without their beloved electronic friends. Bita, on the other hand, found more primitive ways of entertaining herself, such as playing with a lose string in the back of her seat and playing with the window shade.

All three girls were surprised when the pilot came on the intercom, announcing the decent of the plane and the need for the passengers to put on their seatbelts. It had been a very long trip, yet the girls felt as if they had just boarded the plane minutes before. Rachelle glanced at her watch and noticed that it was 8:00 A.M.

"Wow. It's already 8," she commented.

"No, it's 2 P.M.," said Tiffany matter-of-factly.

"How do you…" Rachelle began. She watched as Tiffany smiled smugly and pointed to the intercom speaker over their heads, which was emitting the sound of the pilot's voice continuing to say "And remember folks, put your watches six hours ahead."

"Oh, yeah," Rachelle said, rolling her eyes as she remembered that Tiffany was clairvoyant.

"We better go," said Bita, gesturing to the rest of the passengers filing out of the plane.

"Ok, now, we're supposed to use this money," began Rachelle when they were inside the airport as she pulled a small wad of bills from her pocket, "to take a cab to King's Cross Station. This is the only time we'll need money, so we can use it all."

Rachelle hailed a cab a few minutes later outside of the airport and the girls squished into the back seat.

"Where to?" asked the cab driver.

"King's Cross Station," said Rachelle, not wanting to try and figure out how many bills she should give him so just thrusting the whole wad into the man's hand. "Keep the change," she added at his shocked look at all of the money.

The driver stared at the money until the cars behind him began to honk and he began driving, still glancing over at the money (which he laid on the passenger seat when he started driving) every now and then.

"Here you are ladies," said the cab driver, grinning five minutes later when he dropped the girls off at the station.

"Wow, that must have been a _lot_ of money," said Bita as the driver sped away, not wanting to give time for Rachelle to return to her senses and take back most of the money.

"No, Mr. Vilner wouldn't have given us $500 for a cab ride. He knew we wouldn't need the rest of the money…" Rachelle said with a nervous laugh, trying to convince herself as much as Bita.

The three girls entered the station and suddenly stopped in their tracks.

"Oh no," said Rachelle as the three girls stared at platforms nine and ten.

"Yeah…that could be a problem," Tiffany said, reading Rachelle's mind (literally).

"I know!" said Bita, suddenly frustrated. "I don't know where Waffle Pudding lives either!"

Rachelle and Tiffany completely ignored her and concentrated on more important matters…such as how in the world they were going to get on platform 9 ¾ (which, according to Mr. Vilner's instructions, was the platform that the Hogwarts Express was on. At the time when Mr. Vilner was reciting the instructions carefully, they were too nervous to realize that he was directing them to ¾'s of a platform) when it didn't exist.


	5. And when you go, go, go, go

**Chapter 5**

"Great," said Rachelle. "Why couldn't he have told us how to get to the platform? That would have been a LOT of help."

"Yeah," said Bita, leaning on the barrier between platforms nine and ten.

"I could try to read his mind, but I doubt he'll be thinking about how to get onto the platform," Tiffany said.

"Yeah, you're right, but you could try anyways," said Rachelle.

"Ok," Tiffany decided, concentrating on Mr. Vilner.

After a while she said, "Well, I see a cloak…and fire…huh, that's weird…maybe he's watching a horror movie or something."

"Why did we just accept everything Mr. Vilner told us as the truth?" said Rachelle, bringing all three girls' fears into the light.

"Because…we've always hoped there was a magical realm…now's our chance to be a part of one. We _wanted_ everything he said to be true," Tiffany said.

"Yeah, you're right…ugh. What do you think we should do, Bita?" Rachelle asked, turning to the spot where her friend should have been, but she was nowhere in sight.

"Bita?" Rachelle asked with more urgency, becoming worried.

"Oh no. Maybe she wandered off somewhere…" Tiffany said.

"She was standing right here," said Rachelle, putting her hand on the barrier.

Both girls gasped as Rachelle's hand disappeared into the barrier.

"It's like it's made of air!" Rachelle exclaimed after she quickly snatched her hand back.

"Should we go through and see what's on the other side?" Tiffany asked, growing excited.

"Yeah…we don't have a choice if we want to find Bita," Rachelle replied slowly, not sharing Tiffany's excitement.

"Here…I'll go first," said Tiffany, stepping forward eagerly.

She walked toward the barrier and right when it looked as if she'd walk smack into it, she disappeared, just as Rachelle's hand had.

Rachelle's stomach lurched unpleasantly, and gathering all of her courage, she picked up the long ago forgotten luggage, trying to prepare herself for walking through the barrier. Taking a deep breath, she dilatorily trudged to the barrier, with her eyes closed, and walked straight through.


	6. I know, it never ends, it never ends

**Chapter 6**

When Rachelle finally opened her eyes, she found herself on a busy platform. There was a train with the words "Hogwarts Express" written on it. She looked down as Tiffany lightly tapped her arm.

"She's unconscious," Tiffany said worriedly, gesturing to Bita. Tiffany was sitting on the ground next to a motionless Bita.

"Are you sure she's not sleeping? You know she can sleep anywhere," Rachelle said, kneeling next to Tiffany.

"No, I think she fell back and hit her head on the ground. It doesn't seem as if she acquired any cranial injuries in the process, just a minor bump. Of course, we won't know for sure until she wakes up," Tiffany said in a professional voice.

"Ok, good. In the meantime, here's the Hogwarts Express, but how are we going to get her on it?" asked Rachelle.

"I guess we'll just have to carry her," said Tiffany.

"I call the head," Rachelle said.

Tiffany looked at her blankly for a moment.

"Ooh! Ok, well, let's leave our stuff here and start carrying her to the train," Tiffany said.

"Ok," said Rachelle, leaving behind the girls' luggage and grabbing Bita's shoulders as Tiffany grabbed her ankles.

"One…two…three," Tiffany counted.

Rachelle and Tiffany lifted Bita and began walking slowly toward the train doors. Rachelle gasped as a rat ran over her feet, closely followed by a ginger-colored cat. In Rachelle's surprise, she accidentally let go of Bita's shoulders, and Bita's head hit the ground with a hollow thud.

"Oops," said Rachelle, bending down to pick Bita up again.

"Hey!" exclaimed Tiffany, dropping Bita's feet, as a girl with bushy brown hair bumped into her as she chased the cat that was chasing the rat.

"Panda!" shouted Rachelle, dropping Bita a second time as a tall, redheaded boy bumped into her as he chased the girl who was chasing the cat that was chasing the rat.

"Ugh, poor Bita. She's going to have one hell of a headache when she wakes up," Tiffany commented as she bent to pick up Bita's ankles.

Rachelle nodded and picked up Bita's shoulders once more. The two girls continued walking to the train doors and attempted to carry Bita inside the narrow doorway. Unfortunately, as Rachelle was walking up the small steps, she tripped, dropping Bita yet again, and Bita's head hit the railing with a loud clang.

"My God, why can't you get a grip on her?!" Tiffany asked, frustrated.

"Sorry," Rachelle said.

"Don't apologize to _me_, apologize to Bita when she wakes up and feels like her head is splitting open," Tiffany said.

"I didn't know Bita had feeling in her head!" said Rachelle, amazed.

Rachelle and Tiffany finally managed to bring Bita into the train and lay her down on a seat in one of the empty compartments. The train began moving and the two girls relaxed.

"Oh no…" said Rachelle worriedly.

"What is it?" asked Tiffany, examining the three new bumps on Bita's head.

"I just remembered! Our luggage…we left it at the platform," Rachelle said, thinking her heart had just stopped.

"Ahhhhhhh!!" screamed Tiffany. She couldn't take all this stress in one day.

Just then, Bita woke up with a start.

"MY LEMON!" Bita yelled, opening the window of their compartment. She tried to jump through when she realized she didn't know anything about what was going on.

"Wait…" she began slowly. "Where am I? What time is it? Who are you? How are the lemons?"

"DEAD!" Tiffany cried, becoming very tired of telling this to Bita over and over.

Bita burst into tears as the door of their compartment opened. The girl with bushy brown hair that bumped into Tiffany as she chased the cat that was chasing the rat stood in the doorway.

"Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear you fret about your luggage…don't worry though, it was brought onto the train already. I'm Hermione Granger by the way, nice to meet you," she said, holding out a hand to Rachelle.

"Hi," said Rachelle, shaking her hand.

"Oh, did I bump into you earlier?" Hermione asked, turning to Tiffany.

"Yes," said Tiffany.

"Sorry," apologized Hermione. "Do you mind if my two friends and I join you in here? Most of the other compartments are full."

"Of course not, we want to meet new people here," Rachelle lied. In reality, they were just as eager to meet new people as they were to have more friends at their normal school.

"Ok, I'll be right back," Hermione said, smiling as she left the compartment.

"You shouldn't have invited her to bring her friends," Tiffany huffed.

"I know, but I didn't want to be mean," Rachelle said.

Tiffany rolled her eyes and turned to Bita.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"Well, _I'm_ fine, but I don't think the lemons are," Bita replied sadly.

"Of course they're not, stupid! I told you they're dead!" Tiffany said, becoming more frustrated as she told Bita about the lemons for what seemed like the millionth time.

"Don't worry Bita. The lemons are in heaven now," Rachelle tried to comfort Bita.

"Oh, ok. So…who are you?" Bita asked.

"I'm Odd One," said Rachelle proudly.

"Ooh…so, _who_ are you?" Bita asked.

"She's Rachel," said Tiffany, smiling evilly.

"Oh, hi Rachel," Bita said, waving at Rachelle.

"MY…NAME…IS…RACHELLE!" Rachelle screamed so loudly that it felt like the whole train shook.

"Um…ok…hi Rachelle," came a voice from the doorway.

Rachelle turned to see who was there and saw Hermione with two boys, one of which the redheaded boy that bumped into her as he chased Hermione who was chasing the cat that was chasing the rat. The other had messy black hair and brilliant green eyes. Rachelle became very red and very interested in her shoes all of a sudden. Tiffany gasped as she realized who the second boy with Hermione was.

"You're Harry Potter!" she said, noticing the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forward.

"Yes…" he replied, and it was now _his _turn to become very interested in his shoes.

Rachelle looked sideways at Tiffany.

"_Who?"_ she asked.

"I read about him in one of the books Mr. Vilner gave us. He's really famous in the wizarding world for defeating this evil bastard dude and is known as 'The Boy Who Lived'," Tiffany explained.

"Oh," said Rachelle. "Hi," she added to Harry and the redheaded boy, waving. She then continued staring at her feet again, only this time, humming a tune no one recognized.

"Is your friend ok?" the redheaded boy asked, gesturing to Bita who was staring dazedly at the wall across from her.

"I'm not sure…" Tiffany replied honestly.

"Who are you?" Bita asked the redhead boy.

"I'm Ron Weasley. Who are you?" he asked.

"That's what _I _want to know," Bita said, looking at Rachelle and Tiffany.

"What's wrong with her?" Ron asked.

"We dropped her," Rachelle explained.

"_She's_ the one that dropped her head," Tiffany accused Rachelle. "_Three _times!" she added.

"But _you're _the one that dropped her feet! _Her brain is in her toe, _remember?" Rachelle shot back.

"Ugh, whatever," Tiffany said, rolling her eyes for the second time in ten minutes.

"WHO AM I?!" Bita half asked, half screamed.

"You're the lemons' biggest fan," Rachelle said.

"But what is my _name_?" Bita asked impatiently.

"You are Bita," said Rachelle.

"Thank you," Bita said, and continued to stare dazedly at the wall in front of her.

"Why are you staring at the wall?" Hermione asked her.

"What wall?" Bita asked. "This isn't a _wall_! It's a TV!"

Rachelle and Tiffany glanced at each other worriedly.

"Oh no…she's worse than before," Tiffany said.

"Well, what exactly happened?" Hermione asked.

Rachelle sighed. "It's a long story."

"Well we have a long trip," Harry said, sitting down. Hermione and Ron sat down too, and Rachelle told them about having to carry Bita to the train because she was knocked out after falling through the barrier. When she was finished, she stopped talking. She didn't want to tell these people they barely knew about their powers or Zastrin or anything else important.

"Why are you just coming to Hogwarts this year?" Ron asked.

"Acuz of de birds with the 'moo' and six cups of BUBBLES," said Rachelle matter-of-factly.

"Oh…"

And Harry, Ron, and Hermione were so confused that they didn't ask The Odds any more questions for the rest of the train ride.


	7. All the things that I used to say

**Chapter 7**

After a while, everyone changed into their robes and to entertain themselves, Hermione began reading one of their textbooks, Tiffany tried to get Bita's memory back, Rachelle started to play with her wand, and Ron and Harry ate candy and talked about quidditch (what else?).

"Come on, Bita! Do you remember _anything_?" Tiffany asked impatiently.

"Well, I remember Waffle Pudding ate the lemons," Bita said slowly.

Tiffany sighed. "_Now_ you remember! But is that really it?"

"Um…plywood," Bita said.

"Ugh!" Tiffany said, more frustrated than ever before.

Rachelle, waving her wand around, moaned, "So…BORED!"

Suddenly, Rachelle's wand pointed at a chocolate frog and it exploded, and bits of chocolate flew all through the compartment.

"Hehe…BOOM!" Rachelle laughed hysterically.

Everybody stared at Rachelle and Bita burst into laughter too.

After Bita finished laughing her empty head off, an evil-looking blonde boy walked into the compartment followed by two massive beings that looked like his bodyguards.

"Well, look what we have here!" Blondie said. "The Hero, the Mudblood, and the dirt-poor weasel."

The two bodyguards laughed dumbly.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry asked the blonde boy.

"I want to see who your new friends are," said Malfoy.

"Are you related to Waffle Pudding?" Bita asked, glaring at Malfoy.

Malfoy raised an eyebrow at Bita.

"Figures that their new friends would be freaks," Malfoy said to his two bodyguards.

The two boys behind Malfoy laughed dumbly again.

"Such rude words the blonde boy speaks," said Rachelle.

"Talk of money, mudbloods, freaks," Tiffany said.

Bita was silent for a very long time.

"We know what it is he seeks," Bita said finally.

"A place where all will show him fear."

"But he will not find that here."

"So wipe your face of that silly sneer."

"And leave us all the hell alone!" the three girls said together.

Malfoy, Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at The Odds oddly. Malfoy nodded to his two cronies and the three of them left.

"How did you think of those lines so fast?" Rachelle asked, looking at Bita incredulously.

"They rhymed," said Bita, as if that explained everything. "Malfoy's kinda hot," she added after a few moments of silence.

"Well, apparently she's gotten her boy-craziness back," said Tiffany.

Rachelle rolled her eyes. "Do you not care that he's evil?"

"Who?" Bita asked.

The group noticed the train starting to slow down.

"We're here!" Rachelle shouted as her arms flew into the air and she jumped up excitedly. "Ow," she said as she hit her head on the ceiling. "I _hate_ being tall."

------

Later, after The Odds had followed the rest of the third years into the castle, Professor McGonagall pulled them aside.

"Do you girls wish to be sorted in the Great Hall before the first years, or in private?" she asked.

"In private," Rachelle and Tiffany said simultaneously.

Professor McGonagall then took them to Headmaster Dumbledore's office to be sorted. When they got there, she stopped in the middle of the room and explained to them the qualities of each house.

"Now, who is first alphabetically?" she asked.

"Bita…we don't know our last names," Rachelle said.

"I see…" said Professor McGonagall.

Bita walked up to McGonagall, and an old, frayed hat was placed on her head.

Bita almost screamed with surprise as the hat said, "Hufflepuff".

McGonagall gestured Rachelle over and placed the hat onto her head. After a few moments, the hat sorted her into Gryffindor. Tiffany was next, and she was also sorted into Gryffindor.

"Thank you, ladies. You may now go join everyone else in the Great Hall. Do you remember the way?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes, we do," Rachelle said surely.

The three girls left Dumbledore's office, only to become lost after a while.

Bita, stating the obvious, said, "I think we're lost."

"Really? What gave you _that _idea?" Tiffany asked sarcastically. "Was it the fact that none of this looks familiar? That no one is here except us? Or maybe the fact that it's been almost forty minutes and we're not in the Great Hall yet?"

"No, it's that waterfall of lemonade," Bita said, pointing to a perfectly normal portrait of an old-looking person on one of the nearby walls.

"Um…okay…" Rachelle said, continuing to walk.

A cat standing a few feet in front of Rachelle stopped the girls.

"Hey, look! She's not running away from me!" Rachelle said, crouching down and holding her hand out to the cat.

The cat came closer to Rachelle, hissed loudly, and strutted away.

"Well that was rude!" Rachelle said.

The girls continued walking in the direction they thought the Great Hall was in, when they came across a ghost.

"Hello, girls. Are you lost?" asked the ghost.

Tiffany and Bita stared open-mouthed at the ghost.

"OH MY GOD! IT'S A GIANT WORM!" Bita screamed after a few moments.

The ghost looked at her oddly and Rachelle spoke up.

"Yes, we _are_ lost. We're trying to get to the Great Hall," she said casually, as if ghosts asking people if they were lost was an every-day occurrence.

"Well, follow me and I'll show you the way," the ghost replied cheerfully beginning to float in the direction opposite the one that the three girls thought the Great Hall was in. "I have never seen you three before and you look a little old to be first years. My name is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, by the way, but you can call me Nicholas. I'm the Gryffindor house ghost. What houses are you in?"

"We're in Gryffindor," Rachelle said, gesturing to herself and Tiffany. "She's in Hufflepuff," she added, pointing to Bita. "The reason you haven't seen us before is because we're transfer students."

"Oh, well, welcome to Hogwarts!" he said as they walked (and floated) into the Great Hall.

"Thank you for helping us," Rachelle said.

As the three girls parted, Bita asked Rachelle, "Wait…why were you following and talking to a giant worm?"

"Um…Bita…we _really_ need to get you help soon," Tiffany said.

Bita left to go sit down at the Hufflepuff table as Tiffany and Rachelle found seats next to where Hermione, Harry, and Ron were sitting at the Gryffindor table.

"What took you so long?" Hermione asked.

"We…kinda got lost," Rachelle said.

"But, a giant worm – ugh – I mean a _ghost_ helped us," Tiffany added.

Rachelle started laughing at Tiffany's slip, and laughed even harder at the very confused look on Hermione, Ron, and Harry's faces.

"Speaking of which, Bita's in Hufflepuff," Rachelle said between gasps for air.

"And…_why_ did you want to sit in their compartment?" Ron whispered to Hermione.


	8. All the words that got in the way

**Anything in bold is a telepathic message between two or all of The Odds.**

**Chapter 8**

On their way to the Gryffindor common room, the staircase they were standing on began to move.

"AHHH!!!!!!" Tiffany screamed.

"OH, CRUD!! EARTHQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!! EARTH…QUAKE!!!!!" yelled Rachelle.

"Calm down. It's…o…k…the staircases are just moving," explained Hermione, as if this were very common.

"And this doesn't freak you out _because_…?" Rachelle asked.

"Obviously she has no idea where she is," Ron muttered.

"It's normal at Hogwarts," Hermione said a little more loudly than was necessary in order to cover up Ron's comment.

**Ron doesn't like us very much does he?** Rachelle asked Tiffany.

"What gave you that idea?" Tiffany accidentally asked out loud.

"What?" Hermione asked, confused.

"Oh…turkey," Tiffany said absent-mindedly.

"_What_?" Harry and Ron asked together.

"You know, the one with the Mohawk." Rachelle said with the air of someone saying something completely normal.

"Oh…" Harry said, blinking several times.

"They're _both _off their rockers," Ron whispered to Harry.

Harry shrugged as the staircase stopped moving. The Gryffindors continued on to the Gryffindor common room and after about fifteen minutes, they were there. There was a chorus of 'oooh's and 'aaah's coming from the new students as they entered the large, comfortable room.

"The girls' dormitory is this way," Hermione said, leading Tiffany and Rachelle to a staircase at the right. At the top of the staircase, Hermione led them to a room that had four beds.

"And here, obviously, is where we sleep," said Hermione.

"Ooh, fluffy!" Rachelle said happily.

"Where?!" Hermione asked in alarm, looking around the room.

"The pillows!" Rachelle said, jumping into her bed.

"Oh, good," said Hermione, sighing with relief.

"What's wrong with fluffy?" Tiffany asked curiously.

"Nothing, don't worry about it," Hermione said.

"Ok," said Tiffany, getting into her bed. All three Odds slept hard, not dreaming all night.


	9. All the things that I used to know

**Chapter 9**

The next morning began with Hermione and Rachelle trying to wake up Tiffany.

"That's it, I'm getting water," Rachelle decided, heading toward the bathroom.

She came back with a cup full of ice-cold water. Just as she was about to pour it onto Tiffany's head, Tiffany's arm shot out and her hand hit the cup, making the water spill all over Rachelle.

"Haha. That's what you get for trying to drown me," said Tiffany with a smug smile.

Rachelle then spontaneously hugged Tiffany tightly.

"My GOD! That water _was_ cold!" Tiffany exclaimed, pushing Rachelle away.

"Come on, let's go to breakfast," said Hermione.

"Ok, I'll be there in a minute after I change," said Rachelle.

"Me too," Tiffany said.

Hermione waited for Rachelle and Tiffany to change and then all three of them went to the Great Hall together. There, they found Harry and Ron and sat with them. Everyone received their schedules, looked them over, and began eating a breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, toast, and orange juice.

About half an hour later, everyone but Ron and Rachelle were finished eating.

"God, Rachelle! You eat SLOW," Tiffany said as she took her friend's plate away. Rachelle just gave a 'hmph', but followed Tiffany, Hermione, and Harry to their first class (Transfiguration), with Ron reluctantly leaving behind his food to follow his friends (and their friends).

When the group entered the Transfiguration classroom, Professor McGonagall pulled Rachelle and Tiffany aside.

"It seems as though your friend, Bita, has a minor concussion and is a bit delusional. One of her housemates has brought her to the Hospital Wing, where you may visit her during your free time. I thought you should know," she informed them.

"Thank you for telling us," Rachelle said.

Rachelle and Tiffany found seats next to each other and Professor McGonagall began class. Transfiguration class was spent taking notes, as were the rest of their classes that day.

-----------

When the boring day was finally coming to a close and everyone was at dinner, Rachelle wasn't very hungry, but she was _very_ bored. She started waving her wand around again, it pointed to her goblet and turned into a fish that was about sixteen inches long. It flopped around all over the table, making plates and goblets fall onto the floor making a huge mess. Rachelle attempted to use her telekinesis to hold the fish still, but she had to keep moving so food wouldn't splatter all over her robes, and therefore she couldn't concentrate.

Professor McGonagall came over to see what all of the commotion was about and was impressed yet angry with Rachelle. She took out her wand and did a spell to turn the fish back into a goblet. She then waved her wand at all of the fallen food, plates, and goblets, making them all go back onto the table the way they were and the fallen food was replaced with fresh food.

"What on earth were you trying to do?" she asked, glaring at Rachelle.

"I…um…I was um…" Rachelle stuttered.

"She dropped her wand, Professor," a thin boy with brown hair and brown eyes said.

"Mmm," said Professor McGonagall, walking back to the teachers' table, still glaring menacingly.

"Thanks," Rachelle said, turning to the boy that had covered for her.

"Sure, I'm Matt by the way," said the boy.

"Oh, I'm Rachelle," Rachelle said, sitting back down at the table.

"That happened to me before…sort of," Matt said.

"Huh?" Rachelle asked dimly. "OH. Really?"

"Yeah. My first year, I was playing with my wand and accidentally turned one of my textbooks into a sock," he said with a slight smile.

"Haha, sock," laughed Rachelle.

Rachelle and her newfound friend continued to talk through the rest of dinner, getting to know each other better, and for once, Rachelle was glad she met someone new.


	10. Have gone out the window

**Chapter 10**

Two days later, during a boring History of Magic class with Professor Binns, Tiffany's head suddenly popped up from her desk as she woke with a start, remembering something.

"We never went to visit Bita!" she whispered to Rachelle.

"Oh, poor Bita!" Rachelle whispered back. "We can go visit her during break later."

"Ok," said Tiffany.

----------

Later, after potions, Tiffany and Rachelle went to the Hospital Wing to visit their friend. When they found Bita in one of the beds, she wasn't completely alone like they had assumed she would be. In fact she was surrounded by almost twenty Hufflepuffs.

"Bita?" Rachelle asked, as if the girl sitting in the bed could be someone else.

"Who are _you_?" Bita asked.

"Ugh, why do we even bother?" Tiffany asked, throwing her hands into the air.

"Bita, we already _told_ you, we're Rachelle and Tiffany, your two best friends," Rachelle answered patiently.

"Oh…_Oh!_ I remember! You're the one that followed the giant worm to the Great Hall!" Bita said, proud that she had remembered.

"Um…yeah, ok," Rachelle said uncertainly.

"I wonder if she's still delusional?" Tiffany said thoughtfully.

"Look! A lemon army to fight Waffle Pudding!" Bita said excitedly, pointing at Madam Pomfrey.

"The…lemons…are…dead," Rachelle answered Bita slowly and clearly.

Bita, once again, burst into tears at the "news".

"You two are upsetting her, you better leave," Madam Pomfrey said sternly.

"But it's not _us_! It's Waffle Pudding!" Rachelle argued.

Madam Pomfrey gave her an odd glance and muttered to Bita, "Maybe _she _should be in here instead of you."

----------

A couple of days after that, Bita was let out of the Hospital Wing, apparently no longer delusional. Tiffany and Rachelle stopped her in the halls a few times for a visit and found that she was no longer delusional and her memory had been recovered.

All of the professors did, as Mr. Vilner said, start weekend classes for The Odds. Not many teachers were happy about this because it meant that they had to hold their classes back and assign very simple bookwork about subjects they all learned in their first and second years. This, in turn, would most likely lead to cancellation of third year's end of term exams.


	11. All the things that she used to bring

**YAY!!!!!!! TWO REVIEWS!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**Sad, isn't it? Two reviews and I get all excited...But they were both _positive_ reviews :-)**

**ANYWAYS, to answer wepper491's question, yes, the chapter names are another Odd thing. They were Rachelle's idea, if you didn't already figure that out.**

**Oh, and here's a physical description of The Odds because I didn't give one before...**

**Rachelle: Shoulder-length light brown hair that curls under at the ends, gray eyes, glasses, skinny, and tall.**

**Bita: Short...very...very...very short, and long dark hair, brown eyes.**

**Tiffany: Very dark brown shoulder-length curly hair, glasses, medium height, brown eyes.**

**Chapter 11**

One lazy Sunday afternoon in the beginning of December, when most of the Gryffindors were in the common room, Fred pulled Rachelle and Tiffany aside and brought them to the small, quiet corner of the room where George was sitting.

"We're Ron's brothers," George said as a very brief introduction.

"Yeah, he's told us," said Rachelle.

"No, he hasn't. We heard him talking about them to Harry and Hermione," Tiffany corrected Rachelle.

"Yeah, well, whatever," said Rachelle, rolling her eyes. "What exactly did you bring us over here for, anyways?" she added to Fred and George.

They broke into wide grins.

"Well, we've noticed you two seem to be very bored lately…" said George.

"We thought we'd make your new lives at Hogwarts more interesting…" continued Fred.

"So, that and the fact that no one else appreciated our ingenious idea made us think about asking _you_ to help us accomplish something that would make everything more fun…for one day, at least," finished George.

The twins smiled smugly and Rachelle and Tiffany waited for them to continue.

"And…? What would we be helping you do?" Tiffany asked, not even attempting to cover up her forced patience.

"Now, _that _is a good question," said Fred, smiling more smugly still.

"Then answer it! Blease!" said Rachelle, adding in a growl, "Boredom kills, you know. Craig doesn't like 'Chelle getting killed, but he _does_ like your neck."

"Be afraid. Be very afraid," Tiffany warned them.

"Don't worry, we are," said Fred.

"Don't you think it would be fun if…" George began, then dropped his voice and whispered dramatically, "everyone spontaneously burst into song throughout the day, singing things that had to do with what was on their mind, and the teachers could do nothing about it?"

Rachelle and Tiffany stared at them, not speaking for a few moments.

"Yeah, it would…but how do you expect to do that?" Rachelle said finally.

Fred rolled his eyes. "Have you lost your mind?" he asked impatiently.

"No of course not!" said Rachelle, looking as if she were very much taken aback by the question. "Mine is in high-security prison for murdering Bita's."

"We have a plan that can't go wrong for making the students burst into song," said George, ignoring Rachelle. "So we'll take care of that part. What we need _you_ to do is cast a spell on the teachers so they can't stop anyone from…_singing_…their mind."

"Why do you want _us_ to do that? Why couldn't you do it on your own?" Tiffany asked suspiciously.

"During your weekend classes today, you'll be alone with the teachers so no one can accuse you of anything," replied Fred.

"Except for the teachers," snorted Tiffany.

"Do it when their backs are turned!" said George with an impatient wave of his hand. "So…will you help us?" he added.

Tiffany and Rachelle looked at each other and began communicating telepathically.

**What do you think? **Tiffany asked.

**Well, it _would_ be fun…** Rachelle thought slowly.

**Yeah, _and_ you could break the rules **Tiffany reminded her.

Rachelle smiled and said out loud, "Ok, we'll help."


	12. All the songs that she used to sing

**Make me very happy. Review. You better. If you don't, may you NEVER attend a Linkin Park concert!!!!!! Bold stuff is a telepathic message sent between two or all of The Odds.**

**Chapter 12**

The rest of the week seemed to fly by and suddenly Saturday was upon them, with The Odds were heading for the unused classroom that the teachers used to give them their private lessons.

When they arrived outside the door of the classroom, they stopped so Rachelle and Tiffany could telepathically review their plan.

**Ok, so you're going to use your telekinesis to drop something in the back of the room that will break and cause all of them to go back there to see what happened. Then, when no one's looking, we'll cast the spell, which won't take effect for 36 hours so they won't suspect that we did it AND they won't have time to fix it before classes on Monday. Is that it? **Tiffany thought.

**Yeah, I think so**, Rachelle thought as she took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Hello, girls," said Professor Flitwick cheerfully from the circular table where Professors McGonagall and Snape were also sitting.

"Hi," said Rachelle, her voice wavering with nervousness.

"You will be taking make-up classes for Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration today," said Professor McGonagall, conjuring three more chairs around the table with a wave of her wand.

"Ok," said Tiffany as the three girls sat down with the teachers.

"Now, take these-," said Professor McGonagall, handing each of the three girls a small hairbrush, "and turn them into hedgehogs by tapping them with your wand and saying _Meresarta_."

The Odds raised their wands, but before they could tap the hairbrushes, a loud crash came from the back of the classroom, making little Professor Flitwick give a terrified squeak and fall out of his chair.

"What was that?" Professor McGonagall asked, standing abruptly.

She hurried over to the back of the room with Professors Snape and Flitwick on her heels.

"Ok, now's our chance," Tiffany whispered, in her nervousness forgetting about her telepathy.

"Ok, on three," whispered Rachelle, also forgetting. "One…two…three!"

"_If you can't say anything nice_," Rachelle and Tiffany chanted the incantation Fred and George had taught them, "_Then don't say anything at_ -"

"I'M SIIIIIIIIIINGING IN THE RAIN, JUST SIIIIIIIIIIINGING IN THE RAIN!!!" sang Bita happily.

"DAMN IT BITA!" Rachelle swore loudly, but luckily, just then Professor Snape spoke, drowning out her voice. "Odd, how that bottle of Toad Juice just fell on its own," he said, glaring at Tiffany, Rachelle, and Bita as he led the other two teachers back to the circular table.

When their private lessons finally finished right before dinner, The Odds hurried out of the room and toward the Great Hall, hoping to find Fred and George there, talking on the way.

"How is that going to effect the spell?" Tiffany asked worriedly.

"Do you _really_ think I know?" Rachelle answered irritably.

"We have to find Fred and George," said Tiffany.

"Yeah…Oh, look, there they are…" said Rachelle as they entered the Great hall and pointed at the Gryffindor table where Fred and George were sitting, smiling eagerly at them.

Rachelle and Tiffany ran over to where they were sitting as Bita left to go sit at the Hufflepuff table. They told the twins about everything that happened in low whispers and it wasn't long before Fred and George's smiles were replaced by worried frowns.


	13. All of her favorite TV shows

**Ok, now you _know_ it's sad when the really bad orginal version of this got more reviews in three days than this has in the whole time it's been published. I'm telling myself that the lack of reviews is due to you probably thinking, after reading the last two chapters, _This has gone _beyond _kinda funny, and has crossed the line into complete stupidity. _Well, let me tell you, you're gonna change your mind after I write the chapter where everyone sings. At least, you'd better. For the good of your own personal health.**

**Chapter 13 **

"What does that mean?" Rachelle asked the twins anxiously after she and Tiffany had finished telling them what happened.

"No idea," said Fred grimly.

"What are we gonna do?" asked Tiffany.

"I guess we just have to wait and see what happens," said George.

"Did your part of the plan work?" Rachelle asked quietly.

While The Odds were in their make-up classes, Fred and George were going to sneak into the kitchens and pour a large amount of Cantamos (the potion they invented to make everyone randomly burst into song) into the large tub of pumpkin juice that was served to the students at dinner.

Fred sighed heavily. "Yeah, but now everyone's gonna get detention for disturbing the classes."

"Well, we don't know for sure," said Tiffany, trying to sound hopeful but failing.

"We'll just have to wait and see what happens," said George again.

---------

Monday went completely normally…at first. In fact, it was going so normally that The Odds wanted desperately to stand up in the middle of their History of Magic, class and yell, "THE MOOSE HAS GONE THROUGH THE PORTAL AGAIN!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" just so there would be a break in the normalness.

They settled for humming _Don't Stay_ by Linkin Park instead. They finished humming the whole thing from memory once, and were beginning on a second time, when…_it _happened, making the so-far normal day turn into The Odds' weirdest day ever (and _that's _saying something).


	14. Have gone out the window

**Ok, I take it back. This may cross the fine line between stupid and funny. But, OH WELL!!!! **

**Review anyways, even if you think it's the worst thing ever.**

**I enjoy criticism. Oh, and by the way, if any of the lyrics are wrong (which i seriously doubt), tell me, and I'll fix them.**

**Chapter 14**

Bita sang the first line.

"Sometimes I…need to remember just to breathe."

Getting into the beat of it, Ron turned to Hermione and sang the next line.

"Sometimes I…need you to STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

Hermione, who had just annoyingly pointed out that Ron's History of Magic paper was three inches too short, glared at him and turned back to her own paper.

Professor Binns ignored them and continued taking notes on a piece of parchment.

"Do you think that was just a coincidence?" Tiffany asked excitedly.

The Odds were beginning to think that something was wrong with the potion and it wasn't going to work.

"I hope not," said Rachelle with the same amount of excitement.

A few minutes went by without interruption, crushing Rachelle and Tiffany's hopes.

But, about ten minutes before the bell was due to ring, just after Professor Binns had picked up their papers and was beginning a long, boring talk about Boris the Bewildered, something else happened: Rachelle, looking at the clock and thinking that the class period had gone by uncannily quickly, involuntarily sang the first line from _Quicksand_ by Lillix.

"Yesterday…seemed so much longer than today."

Tiffany continued with the next line.

"There must be something wrong with me…I think I'm losing it."

And Bita finished with the third line.

"Oh no…I must be stupid."

Professor Binns ignored them, and didn't miss a beat of his speech. Soon, everyone who wasn't asleep was staring at the clock, willing it to move faster, when Hannah Abbot sang the first line of _Nobody's Listening_ by Linkin Park.

"Peep the style and the kids checking for it."

Susan Bones looked incredulously from Professor Binns to the half of the class that was snoring loudly, and sang:

"The number one question is 'how could you ignore it?'"

Professor Binns continued reading from his parchment, either not noticing or not caring that his class was completely inattentive.

A Hufflepuff boy named Ralph Mortimer continued the song:

"We drop right back in the cut, over basement tracks with raps that got you backing this up like…"

A confused looking girl sang: "Rewind that."

Ralph: "We're just rolling with the rhythm."

Across the room, Parvati sang: "Rise from the ashes of stylistic division, with these non-stop lyrics of life living."

Professor Binns read a part about the goblin rebellions of 1432 that he warned would be on the test.

Bita: "Not to be forgotten but still unforgiven."

In the table in front of where Rachelle and Neville were sitting, a rude looking Hufflepuff was teasing Hermione.

Tiffany: "But in the meantime there are those who wanna talk this and that, so I suppose that it gets to a point where feelings gotta get hurt…"

And Ron, who was sitting next to Hermione glared at the Hufflepuff boy, clenched his fists, and sang: "And get dirty with the people spreading the dirt."

The same Hufflepuff that was making fun of Hermione was now crumpling up a piece of parchment and was getting ready to throw it at Neville.

"Neville…" Rachelle whispered. But he didn't even look up from the magical herb book that he was reading and the parchment ball hit him right in the middle of his forehead.

Rachelle: "Tried to give you warning, but everyone ignores me. Told you everything loud and clear…"

Everyone who was still awake: "But nobody's listening."

Rachelle: "Call to you so clearly, but you don't want to hear me...told you everything loud and clear…"

Everyone who was still awake: "But nobody's listening."

The bell rang and everyone made a break for the door.


	15. I'm missing you

**YAY! TWO MORE REVIEWS! THAT BRINGS THE TOTAL UP TO FOUR! Isn't this sad? Yes, it is. Do I care? No, not really, BECAUSE I HAVE TWO MORE REVIEWS! WOO!!!!!!! But, you know what number I like better than four? Five :-) Oh, and if you think there's not enough fluff, I'm going to add some very soon. So beware, you non-fluff people.**

**Chapter 15**

The Odds headed to Transfiguration together, and on the way there, they passed Mrs. Norris, who was meowing the Meow Mix theme song and staring at everyone menacingly. As if this wasn't odd enough, further down the hallway, Filch was lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce on some unsuspecting student. As the girls passed him, they distinctly heard him singing _Papercut_ by Linkin Park.

"Why am I so uptight today?

Paranoia's all I got left

I don't know what stressed me first

Or how the pressure was fed

But I know just what it feels like

To have a voice in the back of my head…"

"Ok, that has to be the scariest thing that I've ever seen," said Tiffany in a shocked voice as they walked quickly past Filch.

"Eggs," Rachelle agreed.

When the girls made it to Transfiguration, they chose seats close together. As soon as they sat down, Ron and Hermione walked into the classroom, looking very mad at each other, and sat down on opposite sides of the room.

"Ze ba," said Rachelle.

"Yes, I agree," said Tiffany.

As soon as the whole class was seated, Professor McGonagall waved her wand at a piece of chalk and it began to scribble across the board: Most of the teachers are having…complications…with their voice, today. Therefore, you will all be assigned bookwork in most of your classes. In _this_ class, please turn to page 173 and attempt to transfigure all of the items up to page 197. Any items you fail to transfigure in class will be your homework.

A girl named Jessica Fergus raised her hand. Professor McGonagall nodded at her, and she asked, "What sort of complications are you having?"

Professor McGonagall scowled, waved her wand at the piece of chalk again, and it began writing something underneath the first message: Complications that make it difficult for us to teach our classes. NOW GET TO WORK!

Everyone quickly opened their books and got to work. After a few minutes, Rachelle raised her hand because the spell she was supposed to use to turn a shoe into a box had gone horribly wrong, and the shoe was now a PURPLE BAG! Professor McGonagall ignored Rachelle, so she began waving her hand frantically in the air in an attempt to get her attention. Finally, Rachelle gave up, jumped on top of the desk, and motioned Bita to do the same. The background music for _Faint_ by Linkin Park began to play from nowhere.

**Bita:**

I am a little bit of loneliness

A little bit of disregard

Handful of complaints

But I can't help the fact

That everyone can see these scars

I am what I want you to want

What I want you to feel

But it's like no matter what I do

I can't convince you

To just believe this is real

So I let go

Watching you

Turn your back like you always do

Face away and pretend that I'm not

But I'll be here

Cause you're all that I got

**Rachelle:**

I can't feel

The way I did before

Don't turn your back on me

I won't be ignored

Time won't heal

This damage any more

Don't turn your back on me

I won't be ignored

**Bita:**

I am a little bit insecure

A little unconfident

Cause you don't understand

I do what I can

But sometimes it don't make sense

I am what you never want to say

But I never had a doubt

It's like no matter what I do

I can't convince you

For once just to hear me out

So I let go

Watching you

Turn your back like you always do

Face away and pretend that I'm not

But I'll be here

Cause you're all that I got

**Rachelle:**

I can't feel

The way I did before

Don't turn your back on me

I won't be ignored

Time won't heal

This damage any more

Don't turn your back on me

I won't be ignored

YOU

HEAR ME OUT NOW

YOU'RE GONNA LISTEN TO ME LIKE IT OR NOT

RIGHT NOW

HEAR ME OUT NOW

YOU'RE GONNA LISTEN TO ME LIKE IT OR NOT

RIGHT NOW

I can't feel

The way I did before

Don't turn your back on me

I WON'T BE IGNORED

I can't feel

The way I did before

Don't turn your back on me

I won't be ignored

Time won't heal

This damage any more

Don't turn your back on me

I won't be ignored

I can't feel

Don't turn your back on me

I won't be ignored

Time won't heal

Don't turn your back on me

I won't be ignored

Professor McGonagall stared at Rachelle and Bita on the desks, blinked, and waved her wand at the piece of chalk for a third time: Do you have a question, Rachelle?

Rachelle and Bita got calmly off the desk, and Rachelle said in a slightly hoarse voice, "What should I do with that bag?" She waved her hand at the purple bag that was sitting menacingly on her desk.

Professor McGonagall pointed her wand at the purple bag and it turned back into a shoe with a small pop.


	16. I never knew how much you loved me

**I have really nothing to say...except that I decided to put all of the singing and the name of the person singing in bold...other than that, just, REVIEW!**

**Chapter 16**

After Transfiguration, The Odds went to lunch together, and Bita decided to sit at the Gryffindor table with Rachelle and Tiffany. They ate and talked happily, reliving the fun they'd had so far, thanks to the Cantamos potion.

"Hey, there's Matt, why don't you go ask him if-," Tiffany began, looking down the table.

"What? Where?" Rachelle asked, looking in the direction Tiffany was looking in.

"NO! Never mind! Look, elephant!" Tiffany said quickly, pointing in the opposite direction from where Matt was sitting.

"WHERE?" Rachelle asked again, more excitedly.

"Oh…never mind…it was just Jessica," said Tiffany casually.Jessica was a Slytherin, one of their worst enemies.

"HOW DARE YOU CONFUSE HER WITH AN ELEPHANT?" Rachelle asked angrily.

"Sorry, it won't happen again, I promise," said Tiffany.

"Ok," said Rachelle.

"Oooh, look at Matt!" said Bita.

"DAMN IT BITA!" Tiffany said. "From now on, you're sitting at the Hufflepuff table."

A look of excitement came over Bita's face as she asked, "CAN THE LEMONS COME TOO?"

"They…are…D-E-A-D!" said Tiffany hysterically.

"WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME?" Bita asked as she began to sob uncontrollably.

Rachelle stared down the table at Matt, who was sitting next to a very pretty, very giggly blonde girl.

"Maybe she's his cousin or something…" Tiffany suggested.

"Yeah…" said Rachelle slowly. She continued to watch them until the end of lunch, when Matt and the girl stood and left together, his arm around her shoulder.

"Maybe they're really _close_ cousins," said Tiffany.

"Mmhmm…" said Rachelle.

"Come on, he wouldn't have been so nice to you if he had another girlfriend," said Tiffany, trying to sound logical.

But Rachelle wasn't listening. She stood, picked up her bag, motioned Tiffany and Bita to follow her to their next class, Care of Magical Creatures, as the background music for _Ironic_ by Alanis Morissette started playing from nowhere.

**Rachelle: **

**An old man turned ninety-eight**

**He won the lottery**

**And died the next day**

**It's a black fly**

**In your chardonnay**

**It's a death row pardon**

**Two minutes too late**

**Isn't it ironic…don't you think?**

**It's like rain on your wedding day**

**It's a free ride when you've already paid**

**It's the good advice that you just didn't take**

**And who would've thought…it figures**

**Mr. Play It Safe**

**Was afraid to fly**

**He packed his suitcase**

**And kissed his kids goodbye**

**He waited his whole damn life**

**To take that flight**

**And as the plane crashed down**

**He thought… "Well, isn't this nice?"**

**And isn't it ironic…don't you think?**

**It's like rain on your wedding day**

**It's the free ride when you've already paid**

**It's the good advice that you just didn't take**

**And who would've thought…it figures**

**Well life has a funny way**

**Of sneaking up on you**

**When you think everything's ok**

**And everything's going right**

**And life has a funny way**

**Of helping you out**

**When you think everything's gone wrong**

**And everything blows up in your face**

The Odds reached a particularly packed hallway, and people turned around to look at Rachelle as she continued singing.

**Rachelle:**

**A traffic jam**

**When you're already late**

**A no smoking sign**

**On your cigarette break**

**It's like ten thousand spoons**

**When all you need is a knife**

**It's meeting the man of my dreams**

**And then meeting his beautiful wife…**

**And isn't it ironic…don't you think?**

**A little too ironic…**

**And yeah, I really do think**

**It's like rain on your wedding day**

**It's the free ride when you've already paid**

**It's the good advice that you just didn't take**

**And who would've thought…it figures**

**And yeah, well, life has a funny way**

**Of sneaking up on you**

**And life has a funny, funny way**

**Of helping you out**

**Helping you…out**

They finally reached the school grounds for Care of Magical Creatures as Rachelle finished singing her song.


	17. I'm missing you

**I use a song called My December by Linkin Park in the following chapter, and if you haven't heard it yet, YOU REALLY NEED TO LISTEN TO IT!!!!!!!!!! IT…ROCKS!!!!! And, if you aren't a Linkin Park fan and haven't heard it, I still suggest that you listen to it, because it's much different from their other songs (in other words, it's not DEFINITELY NOT in the rock genre).**

**Oh, yes, and I decided changed telepathic messages to _bold and italics_.**

**REVIEW!!!!!!**

**Chapter 17**

As they walked onto the snow-covered grounds, they shivered and realized they had forgotten their coats.

"That was kind of stupid…it's like 15 degrees out here and we forgot to bring coats," said Tiffany.

"I blame the purple elves," said Rachelle matter-of-factly.

"Me too," Tiffany said.

The girls turned around and went back into the Entrance Hall, were warmth seemed to emit from the walls.

"We'd better hurry, we're going to be late as it is," said Tiffany, looking at her watch.

"Maybe one of us should go to Care of Magical Creatures and tell Hagrid that we're going to be late," Rachelle suggested.

"Yeah, _and_ they can tell the other two what they missed," Tiffany added.

"I'll go back," Bita volunteered.

"Should we trust her?" Tiffany asked Rachelle uncertainly.

"I guess…She _does_ make good grades," said Rachelle.

"Ok, bye Bita. See ya soon," said Tiffany, turning back to Bita.

"Bye!" said Bita, smiling proudly and taking her stuffed lemon out from underneath her robes. "Come on Jonny, they're going to go get us lemonade while we wait outside with the ferns," she said to the lemon.

Tiffany stared at Bita's retreated back. "Maybe I should have gone…"

"Yeah…but I don't think Bita will mind the cold as much as you would have, because she has Jonny," said Rachelle.

"That's true…come on, we should go."

On the 4th floor, Rachelle and Tiffany bumped into Matt and the giggly blonde. They were walking close together and laughing at something. Rachelle completely ignored them, or at least, tried to completely ignore them. Tiffany, on the other hand, glared at Matt and purposely stepped in his way.

"Excuse me," he said, still smiling from whatever he and the girl had been laughing at.

"No. You don't deserve to be excused," said Tiffany angrily.

"I thought we were going to get our coats," said Rachelle, trying to pull Tiffany away from Matt.

Tiffany stood stubbornly still and continued to glare at Matt.

"What did I do?" Matt asked, sounding sincerely worried he had done something bad.

"You led her on," said Tiffany, gesturing to Rachelle. "Ever since the fish. EVER…SINCE…THE…FISH, you've been acting really nice to her. Walking her to classes, sitting with her at meals…and all this time you had another girlfriend. Well, I hope you're proud of yourself for successfully making Rachelle feel really stupid."

Tiffany then allowed herself to be pulled by Rachelle and they both walked the rest of the way to Gryffindor Tower in silence.

---------****

"You really shouldn't have done that. Now he probably thinks I'm more blonde than his girlfriend," Rachelle said quietly after they got their coats and were headed back down to the grounds.

"Who _cares_ what he thinks? Besides, I did that for ME, on my own accord. If he thinks you made me do it, then oh well!" said Tiffany.

"Yeah, I guess…"

When they finally reached Care of Magical Creatures, they saw that Bita wasn't paying the least bit of attention to what was going on in class and that they probably wouldn't get caught up with what they missed.

Tiffany and Rachelle jogged over to where Bita was standing, staring at Malfoy.

"Bita, did you tell Hagrid why we were late?" Tiffany asked.

Bita continued to stare.

"Bita…?" Tiffany said, poking Bita's shoulder.

"IT'S THE KING OF THE LEMONS!" Bita said, pointing excitedly at Malfoy.

"Didn't you think he was related to Waffle Pudding?" Tiffany asked.

"No," said Bita flatly.

Tiffany rolled her eyes. "Fine, what makes him the king of the lemons?"

"He has yellow hair!" said Bita happily.

"So do about a million other people," said Rachelle.

But Bita wasn't listening; she was staring at Malfoy again and stroking Jonny's head lovingly.

After Hagrid finished warning the class about how Bleezies (the creatures they were currently studying) often spontaneously combust and multiply, he instructed everyone to form a group of four, take a Bleezie, and try to still have only one Bleezie at the end of the class period.

Harry and Ron stood together and looked at Hermione expectantly, but she joined The Odds a few feet away.

"What _is_ it, Hermione?" Ron asked, frustrated.

Hermione glared at him.

"What did I do?" Ron asked, even more frustrated.

Hermione turned her back on him and began talking to Rachelle.

Ron turned to Harry. "Do _you_ know what I did?"

Harry quickly changed the subject. "Hey, look, there's Neville…now we only need one more person..."

"Why _are _you mad at him?" Rachelle asked Hermione after Harry and Ron had left in search of a fourth person for their group.

"Yeah, what did he do?" Tiffany asked curiously.

"Absolutely nothing. That's the problem. Now, let's get to work," said Hermione, and that was the end of that.

After a while, Rachelle burst into laughter and said to the empty space near her left shoulder, "Yeah, whatever you say, Bob."

"Bob?" said Hermione.

"Yes. Bob the llama!" said Rachelle proudly.

"Oh…" said Hermione.

The Odds told Hermione all about Ckaloatia as they fed their Bleezie spaghetti.

Toward the end of the period, The Odds and Hermione heard Ron and Malfoy fighting.

"You better shut up, Malfoy, if you want to go to Potions with all of your limbs," Ron threatened.

Malfoy glanced at Hermione, who was watching them worriedly.

"Hey look, your girl friend is gonna come save you," Malfoy said, amused.

Ron cracked and prepared to curse Malfoy when Hermione came over and pulled Ron's wand out of his hand.

Malfoy walked off, laughing, toward Crabbe and Goyle to tell them about everything that just happened.

Ron turned to Hermione and said angrily, "You know, you REALLY need to stay out of other people's business!"

Hermione's glare returned and she said, "We don't know how dangerous Malfoy can be when he's mad, and you _know_ he'd tell his dad if you cursed him…I didn't want you to get hurt, you goncuzuean boogy fwap!"

She then turned and began to walk off, but stopped suddenly, turned around and came back, smacked Ron, and _then_ walked off.

Tiffany and Rachelle passed a thoroughly shocked Ron on their way to where Hermione now stood.

Rachelle stopped momentarily and said quietly, "Goncuzuean boogy fwap isn't a good thing, you know."

She and Tiffany then continued to go to where Hermione now was, far away, and were soon joined by Bita.

When the bell rang a few minutes later, The Odds and Hermione started to walk back to the castle for their Potions class when Rachelle noticed that Ron and Harry weren't around.

She stopped walking and sent to Tiffany, **_Where are Harry and Ron?_**

**(A/N: Ok, since this is in The Odds' point of view, I'm going to tell you this in an author's note – right now, Harry has just had a random surge of loneliness and is suddenly depressed because he has no ****_real_**** family. OF COURSE I know that never happens! ::becomes hysterical:: THIS IS FAN FICTION! NOT FACTIONAL FICTION! ::ahem:: Now, back to ze fic.)**

As if in reply, the background music for My December by Linkin Park started playing from the area around Hagrid's hut.

Rachelle gasped and said excitedly, "SINGY!"

The odds turned around and jogged back to Hagrid's hut with Hermione reluctantly following.

Everyone was gathered around Harry, Ron, and Ginny, and suddenly, Harry started the song.

**Harry:**

This is my December

This is my time of the year

This is my December

This is all so clear

_(He paused as short instrumental played)_

This is my December

This is my snow-covered home

This is my December

This is me alone

And I…****

**Ron:**

Just wish that I didn't feel like there was something I missed

**Harry:**

And I…

**Ron:**

Take back all the things I said to make you feel like that

**Harry: **

And I…

**Ron:**

Just wish that I didn't feel like there was something I missed

**Harry:**

And I…

**Ron:**

Take back all the things I ever said to you

**Harry:**

And I'd

**Harry and Ginny:**

Give it all away

**Harry:**

Just to have somewhere to go to

**Harry and Ginny:**

Give it all away

**Harry:**

To have someone to come home to

**Harry:**

This is my December

These are my snow-covered trees

This is me pretending

This is all I need

**Harry:**

And I…

**Ron:**

Just wish that I didn't feel like there was something I missed

**Harry:**

And I…

**Ron:**

Take back all the things I said to make you feel like that

**Harry:**

And I…

**Ron:**

Just wish that I didn't feel like there was something I missed

**Harry:**

And I…

**Ron:**

Take back all the things I ever said to you

**Harry:**

And I'd

**Harry and Ginny:**

Give it all away

**Harry:**

Just to have somewhere to go to

**Harry and Ginny:**

Give it all away

**Harry:**

To have someone to come home to

This is my December

This is my time of the year

This is my December

This is all so clear

**Harry:**

Give it all away

Just to have somewhere to go to

Give it all away

To have someone to come home to

**Harry and Ginny:**

Give it all away

**Harry:**

Just to have somewhere to go to

**Harry and Ginny:**

Give it all away

**Harry:**

To have someone to come home to

**(A/N: To those of you who've never heard this song, the reason Ginny's part is completely insignificant is because the girl that sings most of the "give it all away" lines with Chester in the real song has a very insignificant part, BUT I LOVE THAT SONG, and I wanted it to be as close to the real version as possible.)**

The second bell rang, and everyone was late to their next class.


	18. I never knew how much you meant to me

**Chapter 18**

"THAT WAS SO COOL!" said Rachelle excitedly as The Odds and Hermione headed to Potions together.

"Yeah, I _love_ that song," said Tiffany.

"SO DO THE LEMONS!!!" said Bita happily.

"OK, BITA, FOR THE LAST TIME…THE…LEMONS…ARE…DEAD! SAY IT WITH ME: D-E-A-D," said Tiffany hysterically, turning around and shaking Bita with every syllable.

"No, they're not. They're just fine," said Bita stubbornly, glaring at Tiffany.

"Yes, they are," said Tiffany, talking a little calmer than before.

"No, they're not."

"Yes, they are."

"No, they're fine."

"No, they aren't."

"THE LEMONS AREN'T DEAD!"

"YES, THEY ARE!" shouted Rachelle and Tiffany simultaneously.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" cried Bita as she burst into uncontrollable sobs and ran to a nearby tree, where she pulled out Jonny and kissed him fondly.

"She's going to be late to Potions," Tiffany observed.

"Yeah…oh well," said Rachelle as they continued walking back to the castle.

When Rachelle, Tiffany, and Hermione finally made it to the dungeons, they found Bita sitting outside of the door to the Potions room.

"What…HOW DID YOU GET HERE SO FAST?" Tiffany asked her incredulously.

"Get where?" asked Bita.

"UGH! Never mind, my dear, intelligent friend. Why haven't you gone in?" Tiffany asked, gesturing to the door.

"I just got here," said Bita.

Tiffany rolled her eyes, walked around Bita, and went inside the classroom with Rachelle and Hermione following her lead.

When the three friends entered the classroom, they noticed that a piece of chalk was writing on the chalkboard all on its own, just like it had in Professor McGonagall's class. It seemed to be writing a book assignment, also just as Professor McGonagall's chalk had.

Snape looked up from where he was sitting at his desk and glared at the three girls. He waved his wand at the piece of chalk, which stopped scribbling the assignment and began composing a new message.

"Why are you three girls late?"it wrote.

"WE'RE THREE GIRLS AND A LLAMA, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!" Rachelle said indignantly.

Snape stared at her, no longer glaring.

"A…_llama_?" wrote the chalk underneath the first message.

"Yes. _Bob_ the llama," Rachelle said matter-of-factly.

"And where is…_Bob_?" wrote the chalk.

"Right THERE! Can't you see him?" Rachelle asked, pointing to a space between herself and Tiffany.

"JUST SIT DOWN!" wrote the piece of chalk furiously. Apparently Snape wasn't in the mood to deal with Rachelle's imaginary friends.

Rachelle and Tiffany found seats near the back of the classroom and Hermione sat behind them.

Halfway through class, Rachelle realized Bita never came in after them.

"Where's Bita?" she asked Tiffany worriedly.

"Oh no, didn't she ever come in??" Tiffany asked.

"No, I don't think so," said Rachelle, turning around in her seat and scanning the room.

"Great…I bet she went after Waffle Pudding," Tiffany groaned.

"Prob– AH!"

Rachelle jumped after she turned around in her chair to ask Hermione if she knew where Bita could be. Bita was now sitting in the chair next to Hermione.

"BITA, HOW DID YOU GET THERE?" Rachelle hissed.

"No idea!" said Bita happily.

"Really, Bita, you don't know how you got there without us noticing?" Tiffany asked.

"No."

Snape popped out of nowhere and stood next to Rachelle, staring icily at her, then pointed to the board.

"Ten house points from each of you for not staying on task…_including_ Bob," the chalk had written.

Rachelle's eyes grew wide and she pulled out her Potions book, starting on the assignment. Tiffany, Bita, and Hermione followed suit. But as soon as Snape had returned to his desk, Rachelle turned to Tiffany and whispered, _"No one _cares about Bob!" 


	19. I need you, and when you go, go, go, go

**Yes, I was supposed to write this chapter over two weeks ago. Sorry, but I temporarily died of an overdose of overplayed music and too much homework. I mean, really, I expect to get homework at school almost every day BUT FIVE HOURS IS KINDA RIDICULOUS, DON'T YOU THINK???**

**::ahem::**

**But anyways, I've finally updated AND I NEED YOU TO DO ME A BIG FAVOR!**

**I am torn between having a Harry/Ginny ship and a Harry/OC ship. Which do you think would be the most interesting? Which one do YOU want me to do? It is mentally impossible for me to make my own decisions. Well, practically. I REALLY NEED OTHER PEOPLE'S OPINIONS ON THIS. In fact, I might not update until I have some opinions...**

**And, please tell me if you have any other ship suggestions. **

**AND, I mention something in the following chapter that didn't happen until OotP, but let's just ignore that…**

**Oh, yes, I put the Linkin Park lyrics in **_italics_

**Chapter 19**

Later that class period, Tiffany suddenly looked up from her work and turned to Rachelle, saying, "You know…an event's date is going to change…Dumbledore's gonna announce it at dinner."

Rachelle stared at her for a moment.

"What event?"

"I don't know!"

"Then what was the point of telling me?"

Tiffany blinked and an expression came over her face that looked uncannily like the expression Bita wore for the majority of her life.

"You know, that's a really good question."

"How do _you_ know something's date changed?" Ron, who was sitting in front of Rachelle and Tiffany, asked.

"Erm…"

The Odds still thought it was a good idea to keep their powers to themselves. Luckily, Tiffany was saved from answering by Hermione, who at that moment whispered to Ron, "You were supposed to put in the pickled spider eyes _before_ the censan leaves."

Ron glared at her and mumbled:

_You like to think you're never wrong_

Rachelle:

_You live what you've learned_

Hermione glared back at him, but turned to where Malfoy was sitting a few seats away and went on, loud enough for him to hear:

_You have to act like you're someone_

Bita:

_You live what you've learned_

Malfoy picked up his head and sneered at Harry:

_You want someone to hurt like you_

Tiffany:

_You live what you've learned_

Harry looked at the front of the room where Snape was sitting behind his desk, writing something down on a piece of parchment:

_You wanna share what you've been through_

And to everyone's complete shock, Snape – who had been silent the whole class period – muttered audibly:

_You live what you've learned_


	20. I know, it never ends, it never ends

**Thanks for reviewing, PrincessLilly818181!!!! I won't say the OC I have in mind yet, but does anyone object to a Harry/OC ship?**

****

**Chapter 20**

"So _that's_ what happened to the teachers!" said Tiffany after class was over and The Odds were walking to dinner.

Rachelle laughed.

"WHAT ABOUT THE LEMONS?" asked Bita worriedly.

"PIE!" said Rachelle.

Bita gasped. "NOOOOO!!!!! WAFFLE PUDDING MADE THE LEMONS INTO PIES???"

"No, we're having pie today!" said Rachelle hurriedly. "Right, Tiffany?"

"Yeah," said Tiffany, who had envisioned the day's dinner when she got bored in Potions.

Halfway through dinner, Rachelle suddenly remembered something, turned to Tiffany, and asked, "What about the announcement Dumbledore's supposed to change?"

"Oh…well he'll probably do it after dinner," said Tiffany.

Sure enough, after everyone had finished eating (including Rachelle, who had spent a lot of time slowly enjoying her pie), Dumbledore called for attention.

"I'm sure you all remember the Winter Ball that the staff and I had planned for later on this month, but our plans have changed. Professor Harris, our Muggle Studies teacher, has decided that we should have something of a _muggle dance_, with music that students in muggle schools enjoy. He also thought it would be a good idea for you to dress like muggles. He believes that this will be a very good experience for all of you, not just his students, and it would make some of you who come from the muggle world – including our new exchange students – feel more at home. So, we've asked Hogsmeade to import clothes from the very popular American muggle store _Kohl's _for you to buy, and they have the clothes ready already, so why wait until the end of the month for the…dance? We have decided to move the date of the dance to next weekend and have a Hogsmeade trip this weekend. That should give you plenty of time to prepare."

When Dumbledore had finished his speech, everyone was whispering excitedly except for the Slytherins, who looked thoroughly disgusted.

"Are there any questions?" asked Dumbledore.

The Slytherins glared at him. Rachelle's hand shot up into the air.

"ARE YOU A BOX?" she asked excitedly.

Dumbledore smiled. "Of course."

"Oooh, what kind?"

"A crystal box with a lose lid."

"Oooh! I'm a Tupperware box…I lost my lid, but I have a replacement…it has a hole in it though. A _triangular_ hole," said Rachelle proudly.

The students were released to their common rooms a few minutes later, everyone (except, obviously, the Slytherins) chatting happily about the upcoming muggle dance.


	21. All the things that I used to say

**Review, PLEASE!!! Even if you've already reviewed a previous chapter, I don't care, REVIEW AGAIN!!!! Review every freakin chapter if you want, I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I JUST WANT REVIEWS!!!!!**

**::throws tantrum::**

**::throws next chapter taped to a rock at you for not reviewing::**

**Chapter 21**

"It's going to be so much fun!" said Tiffany excitedly when she and Rachelle had made it into the girls' dormitory in Gryffindor tower and were sitting on their beds with the curtains open so they could continue to talk to each other.

"Yeah!" said Rachelle.

"Is Bob gonna come?"

"I dunno, lemme ask him…" Rachelle turned to the empty space near her bedside table and asked in a whiney voice, "Bob, do you wanna come with us to ze daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaancey?"

Rachelle paused for a moment as she listened to Bob's answer.

"He says ya and he's gonna make Josephine go with him," said Rachelle, smiling evilly.

Josephine was Rachelle's imaginary friend cat and didn't get along very well with anyone (including Bob) because of her cynicalness (yes, that IS a word).

"Cool!" said Tiffany happily. "So…are you gonna get a new outfit or just wear something you already have?"

"I _like_ my clothes, I don't need new ones."

"Yeah, I agree…but it might be fun to see what muggle clothes they got in Hogsmeade for us to buy…"

"Yeah…I wonder which shop is selling the clothes?"

"Madam Malkin's, probably."

"Oh. Der."

And with that, the two friends fell back on their beds, pulled the covers over themselves, and slept a sound and happy sleep.

---------

The next three days flew past so quickly that hardly anyone noticed they were gone and Friday was suddenly upon them.

On Friday morning, Bita decided to eat breakfast with her two best friends at the Gryffindor table.

"So, Bita, do you have a date for the dance yet?" Tiffany asked her curiously as she put eggs onto her plate.

"YES," said Bita.

Tiffany stared at her. "Really? Who?"

"JONNY!!!" said Bita happily.

"Uh huh. You're bringing _Jonny_?"

"Yes."

"Bita…you do realize he's a stuffed lemon…?"

"Yes."

"And you're still bringing him?"

"Yes."

"Well…I hope you two have a good time…"

"WE WILL!" said Bita, very enthusiastically.

"Rachelle and I still don't have dates…You know, Rachelle, you should ask Matt," Tiffany suggested, turning to Rachelle, who was sitting on her right.

"Has my brain killed yours too?" Rachelle asked concernedly.

"Not as far as I know…"

"Because you were REALLY mad at him, remember? And, he's going out with that blonde…"

"I've gotten over it and I don't think he's really going out with her…he doesn't seem to like the ditzy type and she was DEFINITELY ditzy…And look, there he is now…coming this way," said Tiffany as Matt unmistakably started heading towards where they were sitting.

"Hi Rachelle," he said cheerfully when he reached them.

"Hi," Rachelle said in the way that she talked to people she didn't like, but not exactly rudely.

"I'm sorry about the whole…incident…you know…" Matt said awkwardly. "I really didn't mean to lead you on…"

"It's ok. The egrets paid for the cheese," said Rachelle.

"Oh…that's good…well anyways…I really want to make it up to you," Matt began.

"CAN YOU MAKE THE SKY AQUA-MAROON AGAIN??? The azaleas could use all the help they can get, you know," said Rachelle, gazing intently up at Matt.

"Well…I _would_ but I can't…sorry…but…do you have a date for the dance next weekend?" asked Matt.

"No."

"Do you wanna go with me?"

Rachelle looked very shocked at the question.

"Um…You don't hate llamas, do you?" she asked Matt after a few moments.

"No, not at all."

"Then, ok! I'll go with you."

"Great! Well I'll see you later, I have some homework left over from last night that I should do before classes start…"

With that, Matt left their table and the Great Hall.

There was a few moments of silence, then Tiffany turned to Bita and said, "So, Bita, I guess I stand corrected. _I _still don't have a date."


	22. All the words that got in the way

**REVIEW! please?? I would appreciate ship suggestions, if you have any...**

**And, in case you haven't noticed, starting with chapter 21, I'm using random lyrics from random songs that I like for the chapter titles.**

**Chapter 22**

"You know, I don't really want to go with Matt…" Rachelle said as The Odds walked to Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Tiffany could tell that wasn't true.

"Really, you don't have to lie, I'm _fine_ with going alone. In fact, I can't think of anyone I'd want to go with," said Tiffany.

"Ok…are you sure you don't mind going alone? Cause I could just tell Matt that Bob doesn't like him and might spit on him if he brings me…"

"No, that's ok," said Tiffany, thoroughly wishing she hadn't said anything except congratulations after Matt had asked Rachelle to the dance.

---------

The rest of Friday, just like the three days before it, flew by and luckily their teachers for the day were kind enough to not give their students homework.

"It's a really good thing we don't have Potions on Fridays," Tiffany commented as The Odds headed to the Great Hall for dinner.

"Yeah, Snape would have given us as much homework as he could fit into the two hours we have him," said Rachelle.

The Odds entered the Great Hall a few minutes later to find that it was brighter and more cheerful than usual.

"It must be everyone's mood…they all seem excited about the muggle dance…" said Tiffany.

"Yeah! I don't blame them, it's gonna be so much fun," Rachelle said happily.

"YEAH!" said Bita, reaching into her robes, extracting Jonny, and kissing the top of his head.

"Yeah…" said Tiffany, with slightly less enthusiasm than the other two.


	23. All the things that I used to know

**Sorry I didn't update RIGHT after my two new reviews, I wanted to....I was just in the middle of a minor crisis involving spilled milk, a binder, a couch, and avril lavigne. Not to mention that this past week I've had SOOOOOO much homework...ANYWAYS, Mikayla, what did you find that didn't make sense? The plot, or conversations between The Odds? Because if it was the latter, those don't really matter...BUT THANKS FOR REVIEWING!!!!!! I'M SO GLAD YOU LOVE IT!!!!!! :-)**

**So, we near the dance...OH YEAH, and, I changed the chapter titles once again. The oddness and random lyrics just weren't what I wanted, so I picked a song that I thought fit fantastically, and used THOSE lyrics, in order from the beginning of the song as chapter names. See if you can guess the song title and artist. And, if you can, tell me what you think of the song.**   ****

Chapter 23

Saturday's atmosphere was thick with excitement and anticipation as the students congregated in the Great Hall, waiting as patiently as they could for Filch to check them all off on the long list of students with permission to enter Hogsmeade. The Odds, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all standing together, slowly edging to the front of the line.

"I WONDER IF THEY'LL HAVE A LEMON SHIRT?" said Bita excitedly.

"Yeah, and maybe they'll have them in lemon sizes so you can buy one for all of the lemons," said Rachelle.

"YEAH!" said Bita.

"Don't encourage her!" said Tiffany in a frustrated way. "Bita…have you heard from the lemons lately?" she added gently.

"Well…no…WAIT, YES," said Bita.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"How did you do that? Because, I mean…THEY'RE DEAD!!!!"

"NO THEY AREN'T!!! I saw them in the park. Playing with the birds."

"Uh huh. Which park?"

"NO WAIT! I just remembered. They're at a family reunion."

"Bita, they were eaten by Waffle Pudding."

"NO! Waffle Pudding wouldn't eat them. If, for some reason, they AREN'T at the reunion, they're probably being held captive. I don't know why they would be. They're at the reunion."

"Ok, Bita, TRY to _think_. Why would I lie?"

Bita glared at Tiffany and said, "Maybe you work for Waffle Pudding and he just WANTS me to think that all of the lemons are dead."

"UGH! There's no point in trying to convince you any more…I give up," said Tiffany, turning away.

A few minutes passed and the two trios continued to inch closer to Filch.

"GUESS WHAT!" Rachelle suddenly said to Harry.

"What?" asked Harry.

Rachelle turned away and stared at a bug crawling along the floor beside her left foot.

"Um…Rachelle…?" asked Harry, looking confused.

Rachelle continued to ignore him. Tiffany rolled her eyes and explained, "It's ok…she just does that sometimes…"

"Oh…" said Harry, still looking confused.

Finally, the group made it to Filch, who glared at them, but checked them off on his list.

"Where should we go first?" asked Tiffany when they were in Hogsmeade.

"Look at the clothes I guess…then we can go eat," said Rachelle.

"Ok," agreed everyone else (worth importance).

The six entered Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions and saw that the robes had, indeed, been replaced with muggle clothes.

"OOOOOH!!!!!!!" said Bita as she found a yellow shirt.

Hermione began to examine a green long-sleeved shirt and Ron began to look at a pair of cargo pants.

It only took the group twenty minutes to pick out what they wanted for the dance and they were ready to find a place to eat lunch.


	24. Have gone out the window

**I should have mentioned this in the other chapter, but oh well. I am very aware that Madam Malkin's is in Diagon Alley, not Hogsmeade, but...let's just say there's a chain store located in Hogsmeade. :-)**

**I hope you like this chapter...**

**REVIEW!!!!**

**Chapter 24 **

"Where should we go for lunch?" asked Rachelle.

"I think we should go visit the lemons at their house!" said Bita happily.

Tiffany stared at her with something between pity and frustration.

"Let's walk around until we find something," she suggested to Rachelle.

The others agreed, so the large group exited the shop and began to walk down the street.

"I've never seen _that _place before…" said Hermione as she pointed to a small, orange building with a green and yellow striped door up ahead on their right.

"Neither have I," said Ron.

As they neared the building, a sign on the large front window came into view, showing its name to be "Ze Lunché Box".

"BOX!!! LET'S EAT THERE!!!" said Rachelle, and she ran inside the green and yellow striped door, with the other five following.

The interior of the building showed that it, indeed, a restaurant. It had white walls, on which there were multi-colored hexagons and stars in random places, blue carpet, about nine small, square, black tables with seven burgundy chairs to a table, and firefly-like lighting fixtures stuck on the ceiling. The chairs were set in odd places around the tables: One chair was on each side of the table except for one side and there was one chair at each corner of the table.

The group moved over to one of the tables and the table resized itself to fit all six of them comfortably. As soon as they all sat down, a waiter dressed in green and yellow striped robes like the door hurried over.

"Hello, my name is Ferguson, I'll be your waiter this afternoon. Here are your menus…" he said, as he passed menus around the table.

"Um…what is…'moinkinsleep'?" asked Rachelle as she scanned her menu.

"Have you never been here?" asked Ferguson.         

"No."

"Then, let me explain the menu. Moinkinsleeps are hamburgers, giboglin is turkey, moosplat is steak, freezefizz is soda, and corrosive fruit juice is lemonade."

"HOW DARE YOU TAKE THE 'LEMON' OUT OF 'LEMONADE'??" asked Bita angrily.

"Eh…" the waiter looked a little frightened.

"YOU WORK FOR WAFFLE PUDDING, DON'T YOU?" asked Bita, beginning to stand up.

Tiffany put a hand on her shoulder and forced her back down into her seat.

"So, what would you like to have?" asked Ferguson, deciding to ignore Bita since everyone else was.

"I'll have a moinkinsleep," said Rachelle.

"Me too," said Tiffany. The rest of the group agreed, too.

"And to drink?" asked Ferguson.

"I'll have LEMONADE," said Bita defiantly.

"Me too," said Hermione.

"And me," said Tiffany.

"And I'll take butterbeer," said Rachelle.

"Us too," said Harry and Ron.

"Ok, I'll be back in a few moments with your drinks," said Ferguson, and he left, returning a couple of minutes later with everyone's drink.

After everyone had their drinks and Ferguson had left for the second time, Tiffany stared at her lemonade for a few seconds then sang loudly, "CHARMIN ULTRA, LESS IS MORE!!"

The other five stared at her, then Rachelle broke the silence and burst into laughter. Bita stared at Tiffany, looking very scared. The face she made caused Rachelle to fall off of the left side of her chair with laughter. She regained herself and got back up on her chair, and everything once again became quiet, Bita throwing scared glances at Tiffany every once and a while.

When the silence became too much to bear, Tiffany asked, "Does anyone have a band-aid?"

Hermione pulled one out of her pocket and handed it to Tiffany. "Here," she said.

"Thanks."

Tiffany started to pull the wrapping off of the band-aid and Ron looked oddly at Hermione.

"What? It's just…in case…someone trips or something…" she said, looking away.

Tiffany got the band-aid completely out of the wrapper and stuck it on Harry's sleeve. Harry looked down at the band-aid, then looked up at Tiffany weirdly and she nodded. Harry took the band-aid off of his sleeve and stuck it on Ron's forehead. He struggled not to laugh as Ron gave him the same expression he had just given Tiffany; Harry nodded. Ron took the band-aid off of his forehead and stuck it on Hermione's nose. Hermione looked at him the same way he had looked at Harry and Ron just shrugged. Hermione then took the band-aid off of her nose and stuck it to Rachelle's back. Rachelle grinned at Hermione and Hermione snorted. Rachelle was forced to do a funny-looking wiggle to get the band-aid off of her back, but she finally succeeded and stuck it in Bita's hair, where it remained for the rest of the day.


	25. All the things that she used to bring

**Chapter 25 **

            Ferguson returned with their food and they found that the restaurant lived up to its name. The plates were square, the hamburgers were square, and the knives were square.

            "Box!" said Rachelle happily.

            "Are you hungry Jonny?" Bita asked, pulling Jonny out of her pocket.

            Apparently Jonny wasn't hungry, because after a few moments, Bita stuck him back in her pocket.

            After the two trios finished eating, Ferguson returned and took their plates back to the kitchen. They stayed sitting and waited for him to come back so they could give him the money for their lunches.

            An odd look came over Harry's face as he watched Ferguson enter the kitchen.

            "Did he just put your fork in his pocket?!?" he asked Tiffany.

            "What?" she said, turning around, but Ferguson was already in the kitchen.

            "I thought I just saw him put your fork in his pocket…"

            "What would he want with my _fork_?" Tiffany asked, confused.

            "HE DOES WORK FOR WAFFLE PUDDING!!" said Bita triumphantly.

            "Well, then, what would Waffle Pudding want with my fork?" Tiffany asked her.

            "I have no idea," said Bita blankly.

            "Well, we already knew _that_," said Rachelle.

                "I wouldn't worry about it…He couldn't possibly do anything horrible with your _fork_," said Hermione, and the subject was closed. 


	26. All the songs that she used to sing

**Sorry about how short this and Chapter 25 are...Oh, and I should have mentioned this a very, very long time ago, but starting with Chapter 21, the Cantamos potion has worn off. **

**SO, review! AND, don't forget to tell me if you're ok with a Harry/OC ship unless you're PrincessLilly818181!**

**Chapter 26 **

The following week inched by, acting the exact opposite of the previous week. Nonetheless, the excitement of the students about the upcoming dance escalated more and more every day that passed.

Finally, after what seemed like at least a year, it was Friday evening and most of the Gryffindors were settled in the common room, chatting happily.

"I can't believe Bita's actually going to bring Jonny…" Tiffany said to Rachelle. The two friends were sitting in two particularly squishy chairs at a small table in the corner of the room.

"I can," said Rachelle, making a correction on her Potions essay.

"You do realize you should have finished that a LONG time ago?" Tiffany asked her, gesturing towards the essay.

"I'm a procrastinator and I'm proud!" said Rachelle indignantly.

"Whatever. Are you still going with Matt to the dance?"

"Yeah…but I'm _not_ going to have fun," Rachelle assured her.

"Mmhmm, sure. What are you gonna wear?" Tiffany asked.

"A navy blue shirt and Capri jeans."

"That's it?"

"Yes. I'm a simple person with simple taste. What are you gonna wear?"

"I haven't decided yet, but I assure you, I'll be able to describe it in more than one sentence."

Rachelle rolled her eyes and continued correcting her essay.


	27. All of her favorite TV shows

**Chapter 27 **

Saturday morning arrived and with it, an extremely high level of anticipation. That morning at breakfast, Bita left the Hufflepuff table to sit with Rachelle and Tiffany.

"Jonny's excited about the dance," Bita informed them.

"Mmhmm…is Jonny a good dancer?" Tiffany asked absent-mindedly, reading a book that she had lying open next to her plate.

"HE DOESN'T HAVE LEGS!" said Bita, sounding highly offended. "But that's ok!" she added, taking Jonny out of her robes and snuggling him.

Tiffany looked up from her book and whispered to Rachelle, "Think what it would be like if he was actually REAL."

"She would die," said Rachelle.

"Yeah, probably," Tiffany agreed, turning back to her book.

-------

Rachelle and Tiffany spent most of the day in the common room, doing the homework their teachers had evilly assigned the day before.

In fact, they spent so much of the day in the common room that they were completely taken aback when Tiffany glanced at the clock and saw that it was time for dinner.

"How could we have skipped lunch?" Tiffany asked as they put their books and work in their bags.

"I have no idea, but I'm REALLY hungry," said Rachelle as they climbed through the portrait hole.

"So am I," said Tiffany.

The two Odds finally arrived at the Great Hall and found Bita sitting at the Gryffindor table with Jonny propped against her goblet.

"Jonny was beginning to worry about you," she told them as they sat on either side of her.

"Well…tell Jonny…thanks for his concern," said Tiffany.

"Ok!" said Bita, and she whispered something to Jonny.

"So, Bita, you said that Jonny was excited about tonight…are you?" Tiffany asked her after a while.

"Yes!"

"What are you going to do since…you can't dance with him?"

"Well first, me and Jonny are going to get a couple of lemonades and talk as we drink them. Then, we're going to get MORE lemonade and talk some more as we drink those."

"What about after you're full of lemonade?"

"Then…wait…WE'LL NEVER BE FULL OF LEMONADE! HOW DARE YOU IMPLY THAT??" Bita asked angrily.

"Sorry…well…what if they don't _have_ lemonade?"

"Then we're going to leave," said Bita firmly.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," said Tiffany. She got sick of talking to Bita, so she turned to Rachelle.

"Do you remember what time the dance starts?" she asked.

"Uh…no," said Rachelle.

"Ugh…oh well, I guess we can just wait in the Entrance Hall until – AHHHHH!!!!!"

Tiffany stopped in the middle of her sentence as something hit the back of her head, making her scalp tingle. She wondered for a few seconds what had happened until Rachelle looked at her, her eyes widening.

"Um…your hair…" she began.

"What? What happened to it?"

"It's…well…" Rachelle reached across Bita and held her goblet up to Tiffany's face so she could see what had happened.

Tiffany stared at her reflection without speaking for a few moments.

"Did you see who cast the spell?" she asked finally.

"I think it was that girl over there…at the Ravenclaw table…" Rachelle pointed to a young-looking girl whose jaw was dropped and who looked very shocked.

"I'll be right back," said Tiffany, and she got up from the table and headed towards the girl.

When Tiffany had come level with the girl, she smiled at her.

"I'M SO SORRY! I was…trying to…" said the girl worriedly.

"No, really, it's ok! I _like_ it like this! I came over here to _thank_ you," said Tiffany.

The girl looked very relieved and said, "Yeah, it _does_ look nice…"

Tiffany smiled wider and went back to the Gryffindor table. When she was once again seated in front of her plate, she admired her new hair color in her own goblet.

Her hair, normally dark brown, was now a nice shade of blackish-blue. 


	28. Have gone out the window

**You know, writing the dance is going to be soooo much fun...**

**IN THE MEAN TIME**

**Tell me what you think so far. Critisize anything that needs critisizing. Here are some questions you should answer in your review:**

**Is the plot bumpy?**

**Are the real characters from the series in character?**

**Is it too fluffy? Is there not enough fluff?**

**Are the OCs marysues?**

**And, of course, DO YOU LIKE IT SO FAR??**

**Oh, and, Princesslilly818181, The Odds are interested in you contacting them, if you want. Tiffany's e-mail address is the one on my profile (I would have put it in here, but since HYPERLINKS DON'T WORK, I just put it as my own). You don't _have_ to e-mail them, only if you want to. :-)**

**Chapter 28 **

An hour later, Rachelle and Tiffany were in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory and had finished getting ready; Rachelle was currently trying to drag Tiffany away from her mirror, where she was continuing to admire her hair that was now so black, it shined blue.

"Come _on_!" Rachelle urged. "We're supposed to go the entrance hall now since we don't know what time the dance starts, remember?"

"Fine!" said Tiffany, sighing, and she stood and followed Rachelle out of the door, through the common room, out of the portrait hole, and downstairs to the entrance hall.

When they reached the entrance hall, they found it empty except for Bita, who was squeezing Jonny very tightly.

"Hi Bita!" said Rachelle, waving enthusiastically at her friend.

"HI!" said Bita, waving back.

"I like your outfit, Bita," said Tiffany. Bita was wearing a red and black striped shirt and black jeans.

"IT DOESN'T HAVE YELLOW ON IT!" said Bita sadly.

"Yeah…how tragic…so, has anyone else come yet?" Tiffany asked.

"No. Just me, Jonny, and you guys," said Bita, staring fondly down at Jonny.

"Oh…well, I guess we can just stand here and – what are you doing?" Tiffany interrupted herself; Rachelle was suddenly running in circles around Tiffany, Bita, and Jonny.

"Waiting for Bobbbbbbbbbbb," she said.

"Is he not here yet?" Tiffany asked.

"No…wait, here he is! HI BOB! HI JOSEPHINE!" Rachelle said, waving happily at the staircase.

"HI BOB! HI JOSEPHINE!" chorused Bita and Tiffany, also waving at the staircase.

After Bob and Josephine had reached the bottom of the staircase, Rachelle moved over to them and pushed Bob toward Bita and Tiffany. She then picked up Josephine, walked back over to Bita and Tiffany, and dropped Josephine at their feet.

The six waited impatiently for more people to join them in the entrance hall, and about an hour after Rachelle and Tiffany first arrived, their wish was granted.

Small groups of people emerged from the corridors, went down the staircase, and entered the Great Hall.

"Let's go in," said Tiffany, and she led her friends into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall had undergone dramatic changes. All of the house tables had been removed, as well as the staff table, and they were replaced by a few small tables near what was apparently a self-serve drink counter at the back of the Great Hall; there were Christmas trees scattered around the edge, near the walls, decorated quite nicely; stars floated high over their heads and provided dim light instead of the usual candles; magical sparkles floated in midair everywhere, but didn't get in anyone's hair, eyes, or cause any other annoying discomfort. The latter made everything brighter and shinier than the stars alone.

"Wow," said Rachelle after they had time to take it all in, and that about summed up the overall effect.

"Yeah…" said Tiffany.

"JONNY REALLY LIKES IT!" said Bita ecstatically.

"Rachelle, there's Matt…" said Tiffany, pointing to the entrance of the Great Hall.

Matt walked over to the friends, while staring around at the fantastic decorations.

"Hey, Rachelle," he said as he reached them.

"Hi," said Rachelle, waving at him unnecessarily.

"Jonny says hi!" Bita informed Matt.

"Hi, Jonny…" Matt said uncertainly, looking around.

Bita waved Jonny in Matt's face.

"Oh…hi Jonny," Matt said again, this time looking at the stuffed lemon.

"Do you wanna get a table?" Tiffany asked, pointing to the tables near the self-serve drink counter.

"Ok," said Rachelle, and the group walked over to the tables, picked one out, and sat.

More people entered the Great Hall, all sharing gasps of delight.

"Hey, there's Harry, Ron, and Hermione," Rachelle said, pointing at the trio walking in.

The trio admired the decorations, spotted Rachelle, Bita, Tiffany, and Matt, and made their way toward them. When they were halfway across the Great Hall, music began to play…The dance had begun. 


	29. I'm wishing you

**The lyrics of the currently playing songs are in **_italics _**and thoughts are between >.**

**REVIEW!!!!!!**

**Chapter 29 **

Harry, Ron, and Hermione greeted Rachelle, Bita, Tiffany, and Matt over the music and sat the table next to them.

"This was a unique idea Dumbledore came up with," Hermione said loudly across the space between the tables.

"Yeah," Tiffany agreed. "Should we move the tables closer?"

"Ok," said Hermione. She motioned Harry and Ron to stand up and pushed their table closer to the table where The Odds and Matt were sitting.

"That's better…this is a nice song," said Hermione after she, Harry, and Ron sat down again. The beginning of the song was long, and the lyrics had just begun even though the song started a while before.

"Yeah, it's by one of our favorite singers," said Rachelle.

_Everything is alright if I just…breathe…breathe _

_Everything is alright if I just…breathe…breathe _

"It's called _Breathe_ and it's by Michelle Branch," she added.

"This is actually the Dave Hernandez Club Remix," Tiffany added. "It's a really great dance song, right?"

"Yeah," Hermione agreed.

"The original wasn't," said Rachelle.

"Do you want to dance?" Matt asked Rachelle.

Rachelle beamed at him, said, "Ok," and the two stood and walked to the dance floor, where people were already dancing.

_I've been drivin' for…an hour…just talkin' to the rain… _

_You say I've been drivin' you crazy…and it's keepin' you away _

_So just give me one good reason _

_Tell me why…I should stay _

_'Cause I don't wanna waste another moment…sayin' things we never meant to say _

_And I… _

_Take it just a little bit _

_I… _

_Hold my breath and count to ten _

_I've been waitin' for a chance to let you in… _

_If I just breathe…let it fill the space between _

_I'll know _

_Everything is alright… _

_Breathe _

_Every little piece of me…you'll see _

_Everything is alright…if I just…breathe _

_If I just…breathe… _

"Jonny, do you wanna go get some lemonade now?" Bita asked her lemon energetically. "Ok!" she said after a few moments, and left to go to the drink counter.

"How about you, Ron? Do you wanna come with me to get a drink?" Hermione asked Ron.

"Yeah, ok," he said, and they followed Bita to the nearby counter, leaving Harry and Tiffany alone in silence.

_Well it's all so overrated… _

_In not sayin' how you feel _

_So you end up watchin' chances fade _

_And wonderin' what's real… _

_And I… _

_Give ya just a little time… _

_I… _

_Wonder if you realize _

_I've been waitin' till I see it in your eyes… _

_If I just breathe…let it fill the space between _

_I'll know _

_Everything is alright… _

_Breathe _

_Every little piece of me…you'll see _

_Everything is alright _

_If I just…breathe _

_If I just…breathe _

"So…" Tiffany began weakly, trying to make conversation. "Very…sparkly, isn't it?"

"Yeah," said Harry.

_So I whisper in the dark…hopin' you'll hear me… _

_Do you hear me? _

_Everything is alright…everything is alright… _

_Yeah…yeah… _

_Everything is alright if I just…breathe _

_Breathe _

_Breathe…breathe… _

_Everything is alright if I just…breathe _

"Um…well…Rachelle and Matt seem to be having fun," Tiffany observed, trying yet again to kill the silence.

"Yeah."

Tiffany silently cursed boys' stupidity and wished Harry would try bringing up a topic instead of just agreeing with everything she said.

_Everything is alright if I just…breathe _

"So, how do you like the dance so far?" Tiffany asked, thinking of a question that he would have to give more than a one-word answer to.

"It's…nice," he said.

Oh yes, what an improvement. TWO words instead of one. Wow> Tiffany thought to herself.

"This is a nice song," Tiffany commented. "Have you heard it before?"

"No."

"Yeah, I doubted it," Tiffany muttered.

_Everything is alright if I just…breathe _

Tiffany began to wonder vaguely if she was the only one who had come alone; by looking at the couples on the dance floor, it sure seemed like it. She considered asking Harry whom he was meeting, but it occurred to her the answer was obvious. He was probably meeting Ginny Weasley…who else would he go with?

_Everything is alright if I just breathe… _

The song ended, a new one began, and Tiffany decided to abandon all hope of having a decent conversation with Harry. 


	30. You never said you were pretending

**Chapter 30 **

Tiffany became bored and took some of her hair in her hand and continued admiring it from where she left off when Rachelle dragged her into the entrance hall.

This action seemed to have drawn Harry's attention to her hair and he finally noticed the color-change.

"Wow…when did _that_ happen?" he asked.

"This morning, at breakfast," Tiffany said proudly, and she launched into the story about the Ravenclaw girl's accident.

"Oh," he said after she had finished.

A new song emitted from invisible speakers, and the people who had cleared the dance floor for a short break returned to it.

Tiffany listened to it for a few seconds and recognized it immediately.

"This is called _Take Me Away_ and it's by Fefe Dobson," she said.

"Oh," said Harry.

Tiffany rolled her eyes and continued playing with her hair.

_I…was waiting all my life to know you _

_All about you _

_And now…I'm staring in your eyes ocean blue _

_I'm all about you _

_And in our minds it comes so easily _

_But there's a feeling coming over me _

_I wanna show you but there's no where we can really be free _

_Everybody's watching _

_Wouldn't it be good if we could be together? _

_Take me away… _

_Take me far away from here _

_I will run…with you _

_Don't be afraid _

_Navigate and I will steer into the sun _

_We will run _

"So you've heard it before?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Tiffany said, surprised that he had asked a question.

_I try…to remember when I was just a child _

_In my room _

_My…imagination used to run wild _

_But I never knew _

_That nothing's ever as it seems to be _

_When a dream collides with the reality _

_It should be easy when two people love each other truly… _

_Everybody's talking _

_Wouldn't it be good if they would understand us? _

_Take me away… _

_Take me far away from here _

_I will run…with you… _

_Don't be afraid _

_Navigate and I will steer into the sun _

_We will run _

_We…will run… _

_Whoa oh oh oh… _

_We…will run… _

_Oh yeah yeah yeah _

_Wouldn't it be good if they would understand us? _

_Wouldn't it be good if we could be together? _

Bita and Jonny came back from the drink counter and sat with Tiffany.

"They didn't have lemonade!" said Bita, sounding as if she were getting ready to cry.

Tiffany stared at her for a moment. "Now what are you going to do?"

"I have no clue," said Bita sadly.

_Take me away _

_Take me away _

_Take me far away from here _

_I will run…with you _

_Don't be afraid _

_Navigate and I will steer into the sun _

_We will run… _

_Oh oh oh… _

_I will run with you wherever you go _

_Don't be afraid _

_Let's run away and I will steer into the sun _

_We will…run _

The song ended and there was hardly a pause before the next song started playing.

"Oooh, I like this song!" Bita said, cheering up.

"Me too," said Tiffany. "It's called _I See Right Through to You_ and it's by DJ Encore," she added to Harry.

_I…see…right…through to you… _

_See…right…through to you… _

_See…right…through to you… _

Just then, someone – a dark blur in the dim light – Harry, Bita, Tiffany, and Jonny didn't know started walking to their table.

"Is he coming this way?" Tiffany asked Bita.

"I gu– " Bita stopped.

The someone that Harry, Bita, Tiffany, and Jonny didn't know had come close enough now that they could see that it was a blonde 3rd year boy dressed in a yellow shirt with a black stripe and jeans. When he came closer, they also saw that he had green eyes. Bita stared at him.

_I…see right through to you _

_It's not like I don't feel your mood _

_What you have for me _

_Is different than the rest that moves _

_I'll be positive I know that I could be there too _

_'Cause you have it all…have it all… _

_I…see…right…through to you… _

_See…your…every move _

_See…right…through to you… _

_See…your…every move _

"Hi," the boy said to Bita.

"Hi…" said Bita faintly.

"What's your name?"

"Bita…what's yours?"

"Jonny…_without_ an 'h'."

Bita almost fell off of her chair.

_Oooh oooh oooh… _

_Oooh oooh oooh… _

_I know you now _

_I read your mind _

_You've shown somehow _

_What I could find _

_On the inside _

_There you will be _

_We're all alike _

_You and me… _

"J-Jonny?" Bita asked, apparently unable to believe it.

"Yeah…do you wanna dance?" he asked.

Bita really did fall off of her chair this time, but stood quickly.

"Ok!" she said, staring at Jonny (the person).

Bita and Jonny (the person) went onto the dance floor, leaving Harry and Tiffany alone once again.

_Oooh oooh oooh… _

_Oooh oooh oooh… _

_I…see…right…through to you… _

_See…your…every move… _

_See…right…through to you… _

_See…your…every move… _

The song ended and everyone stayed on the dance floor as the next song came on.


	31. I'm wishing you

**Well, I _did_ work on the fic while we were in Louisiana, and no stray cows ate it, but I'm still only going to update one or two chapters at a time :-)**

**Sorry the previous chapters were all..._happy_ and perfect. I WILL make the characters and their lives less perfect very soon, I promise.**

**PrincessLilly818181: That's ok, and thanks for reviewing again!**

**Infinite13: Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you think this is odd :-)**

**Ok, so, on to ze next chapteeeeeeeerrrrrrrr**

**Chapter 31 **

The new song was called _Take Me Away_ by 4 Strings

_Shining light… _

_Another day turns into night… _

_Eternal fire _

_Waited all my life _

Rachelle and Matt came over to the table Tiffany was sitting and sat, Rachelle sitting down very slowly. When she finally touched the seat, her eyes became unfocused and a thoughtful look came over her face.

_Take me away… _

_A million miles away from here _

_Take me away _

_Find a place for you and me _

_You're taking me higher _

_High as I could be _

_Take me away _

_Forever you and me _

_Take me away _

"What is it?" Matt asked her.

"Something weird happened the other day…" Rachelle began, and she told him about the fork incident at Ze Lunché Box.

"Wow," said Matt, after she had finished.

"Yeah…" said Rachelle, looking thoughtful again. "Hey, Bob – " she began after a few moments, turning to the empty chair next to her.

Rachelle gasped.

"BOB!"

_Tears I've cried… _

_Kept them all inside… _

_I needed time _

_To make up my mind _

"What is it?" Tiffany asked, hoping something interesting had happened because her boredom was increasing with every second.

_Take me away… _

_A million miles away from here _

_Take me away _

_Find a place for you and me _

_You're taking me higher _

_High as I could be _

_Take me away _

_Forever you and me _

_Take me away _

"Bob is gone…did you see where he went?" Rachelle asked Tiffany worriedly.

"No…" Tiffany said slowly, starting to become worried as well.

"Who's Bob?" Ron asked from behind them; he and Hermione had just come back from getting their drinks.

"The llama," said Rachelle, Tiffany, and Hermione at the same time.

Ron exchanged an odd glance with Harry and he and Hermione sat down.

"Where did you see him last?" Hermione asked Rachelle.

"Right there," said Rachelle, pointing to the chair next to her.

_Take me away… _

_A million miles away from here _

_Take me away _

_Find a place for you and me _

_You're taking me higher _

_High as I could be _

_Take me away _

_Forever you and me _

_Take me away _

The song ended and a new one, called _Walking in the Sky _by DJ Encore, started playing.

"Josephine, do you know where Bob is?" Rachelle asked a spot on the table in front of Bob's chair.

_So many people looking for happiness _

_Expecting more from a brighter day _

_You'd sell your soul running from loneliness _

_Instead of giving yourself away _

_When you're walking in the sky _

_Heaven's holding hands with you _

_So you'd better learn to fly _

_Before you're falling through _

_Cause I'm walking in the sky _

_Heaven's holding hands with me _

_Now I think I've learned to fly _

_I'm happy just to be… _

"Josephine doesn't know where Bob is either," Rachelle informed the others.

"Maybe he…got bored and left…" Tiffany suggested.

"Probably."

"Do you want me to go look for him outside?" Tiffany asked.

"Ok, if you want to."

_I'm happy just to be… _

_I'm happy just to be… _

_You guide me here asking the question why _

_I used to close every open door _

_I'd find the sun even on cloudy skies _

_I've had my time and I don't need more _

_When you're walking in the sky _

_Heaven's holding hands with you _

_So you'd better learn to fly _

_Before you're falling through _

_Cause I'm walking in the sky _

_Heaven's holding hands with me _

_Now I think I've learned to fly _

_I'm happy just to be… _

Tiffany stood and left the Great Hall, thankful for an excuse to leave because her boredom had grown unbearable and she was now getting a headache, as the song ended.

_I'm happy just to be… _

_Cause I'm walking in the sky _

_Now I think I've learned to fly_


	32. EVIL! RUN!

**AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIRTY-TWO!!!!!!!!! QUICK, SKIP OVER TO THE NEXT CHAPTER BEFORE YOUR MONITOR EXPLODES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	33. You'd feel the same

**Sorry it's taken me such a long time to update, but I recently became dangerously obsessed with The Sims 2...even more so than before.**

**SO ANYWAYS, I hope you don't think that The Odds are marysues...**

**As always, **

**REVIEW!**

**And leave comments.**

**WAIT,**

**There's a telepathic message in the following chapter. It's in bold.**

**Chapter 33 **

Tiffany walked slowly out of the huge doors leading in and out of the castle into the cool outdoor night air. The throbbing in her head increased even more and the pain began to make her nauseated. She looked around the grounds, trying to concentrate on searching for Bob, but her head was taking up all of her attention.

She sat down on the ground and held her forehead, willing the pain to recede. She continued to stare blankly around the grounds, but they seemed to be making her even queasier, so she shifted her attention to the silver stars in the dark sky above her, twinkling gaily.

Tiffany was trying to decide if she could make it up to Gryffindor tower so she could go to bed early when the dark, vast grounds around her and the shining stars above suddenly vanished, the throbbing in her head became too much to bear, and she was plunged into darkness.

_Where are they? _

_At Hogwarts. _

_With…_him?

_Yes. _

_Well that makes it much easier than I thought…I will most likely follow through with my plan after all…you've done wonderful. Keep it up and I may share some of the profit with you. _

_Thank you…I am confident you will get them soon…all of them. _

The voices silenced, the darkness faded, and the stars came back into view. She wasn't aware of falling backwards, but Tiffany found herself staring up at the velvet sky above, not being able to feel any part of her body, the grass around her gently scratching her cheek.

She laid there for a few more moments, trying to figure out what just happened, when she heard the doors leading into the entrance hall behind her open, and someone came over to her.

"Are you ok?" Rachelle asked, when she had reached Tiffany and was looking down at her.

Tiffany was pretty sure no one was around, but still she decided to send what she just realized to her friend rather than say it out loud: **Zastrin is about to find out where we are.**


	34. And just come back to me

**Yes, I've FINALLY updated. NOT THAT IT MATTERS, I ONLY HAVE ONE FAN! If you, by any chance, are _not_ PrincessLilly818181 and have been/are reading this and previous chapters, PLEASE REVIEW. Don't get me wrong, PrincessLilly, I still want to hear from you :-)**

**Annnnnnnnd,**

**Who's your favorite Odd?**

**1. Rachelle**

**2. Bita**

**3. Tiffany**

**AND, in this chapter and the previous chapter, things in bold are telepathic messages.**

**Chapter 34**

Rachelle stared wide-eyed down at her friend who was still lying on the ground. She opened her mouth in shock, closed it, opened it to say something, forgot what it was, closed it again, and finally took a deep breath.

"We should tell Bita," Rachelle said.

"Yeah…"

"Are you SURE Zastrin's going to find out where we are?"  
"Yes. Positive." Tiffany stood and continued to tell Rachelle all about her vision.

"Wow…let's go tell Bita."

The two Odds walked back to the gigantic castle, through the huge doors that led to the Entrance Hall, and into the Great Hall. They continued walking through the people on the dance floor, to the back where the small tables and chairs were set up and where Bita was sitting with Jonny.

**We need to tell you something**, Rachelle sent.

**Let's go outside to the Entrance Hall**, sent Tiffany.

"But-" Bita began to protest out loud, earning an odd look from Jonny.

**Come _on_**, Rachelle sent, making a move to grab Bita's wrist.

Bita sighed. "Ok, fine. Bye, Jonny," Bita waved goodbye at a very confused-looking Jonny and followed her two friends out of the Great Hall and into the Entrance Hall.

"What is it?" Bita asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

Tiffany repeated telepathically everything that had happened since she left the Great Hall to look for Bob.

"We should send a letter to Mr. Vilner." Bita said when Tiffany finished. "OR THE LEMONS!" she continued excitedly. "THEY'RE REALLY BRAVE! THEY CAN HELP!"

"No." Tiffany said, not bothering to send telepathic messages any more since she finished with the important part.

"Hey…that's a good idea," Rachelle said.

Tiffany stared at her. "Are you ok?"

"No, not about sending a letter to the lemons, sending one to Mr. Vilner!"

"Oh…that's kind of OBVIOUS, isn't it?" Tiffany said slowly.

"Yeah it is…"

"And _we_ didn't think about it…_Bita_ did." Tiffany continued.

Rachelle and Tiffany stared at Bita in amazement.

"So can I send a letter to the lemons?" Bita asked excitedly.

"Why would you need to send a letter to _them_?" someone asked from behind The Odds. 


	35. I need you, and when you go, go, go, go

**AHHH!!!**

**I'm SOOOOOOOOO sorry, sillydillydylan, I have no _idea_ what happened. This chapter was replaced with Chapter 36, and Chapter 36 is doubled after Chapter 35. I had no clue that happened, so thank you for bringing it to my attention! Here's the REAL Chapter 35. Oh, and as for 32 being bad, it's an Odd thing, in case you didn't figure that out already.**

**(For anyone not sillydillydylan, the above A/N probably won't make sense. Don't try to understand it. You may as well try to understand thepoint of the existance of the personal "a" in Spanish.)**

**(Bold telepathic message between two or more Odds)**

**Chapter 35 **

The three girls spun around and saw Malfoy sneering at them. For once, he was alone. Rachelle glared at him and she and Tiffany turned around again, ignoring Malfoy. Tiffany grabbed Bita's shoulders and turned her around too.

"Didn't you say they were _dead_? Eaten, or something?" Malfoy asked, even though The Odds were clearly ignoring him.

Bita suddenly burst into tears at the reminder and sat down on the floor, rocking back and forth with her arms around her knees. Tiffany sighed, bent down, and patted Bita on the head comfortingly.

**We should go back to the dance**, Rachelle suggested telepathically as Tiffany stood again. **You never know…Zastrin might have sent spies here or something by now and if they notice all three of us are gone, they might come looking for us. **

**Yeah, and we _definitely_ don't want them to find us alone**, Tiffany agreed.

"Come on Bita," Rachelle said out loud, pulling Bita to her feet and leading the trio back to the doors that led to the Great Hall.

As the girls passed Malfoy, Bita made an attempt to kick him, but missed, her foot hitting one of the doors painfully.

"AHHHHH! MY TOE! NOOO!!!" Bita cried, sobbing harder than ever.

Rachelle and Tiffany pulled her inside the Great Hall, despite her efforts to resist them.

"I CAN'T FORCE MY POOR, INJURED TOE TO WALK!!" she protested.

"When we get inside, you can sit down," Tiffany said with forced patience.

"_Fine_." Bita said, allowing Rachelle and Tiffany to pull her into the dark room.

The three girls finally made it to the back of the Great Hall after much yelling and pushing people out of their way. They sat at their own table, between the table where Jonny and Matt were sitting and the table where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting.

"What happened?" Hermione asked. "Did you find Bob?"  
"Nothing. No." Rachelle said non-emotionally.

"What should we do, then? Where could he possibly be?" Hermione asked, starting to sound worried.

"Wait. No idea." Rachelle said.

"Are you ok?" Ron asked. "You're acting…different from usual."

"Yes." Rachelle said.

"Are you _sure_ you're ok?" Jonny asked.

"NO!!" Bita burst out suddenly, still sobbing. "MY TOE'S INJURED, ZASTRIN KNOWS WHERE WE ARE, AND, EVEN WORSE, I THINK SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH THE LEMONS!!!"

Everyone stared, shocked, at Bita, including Rachelle and Tiffany.

"Damn it, Bita! Can't you do _anything_ right??" Tiffany asked suddenly.

"Wait…who's Zastrin?" Hermione asked.

"Who are the lemons?" Ron asked.

"Your _toe_ is _injured? _That's horrible!" Jonny exclaimed.

Rachelle took a deep breath and said very quickly, "WehaveparanormalpowersZastrin'stryingtokillusforthemthelemonswereeatenbyWafflePuddingandwe'regonnagotobednowbye!"

And with that, Tiffany and Rachelle stood, grabbed Bita, and the three of them walked swiftly out of the Great Hall, into the Entrance Hall, and parted to go to their dormitories, leaving five very goncuzuean people behind.


	36. I know, it never ends, it never ends

**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: I have decided to remove the section that involves the Cantamos potion, for the simplereason that it's huge. Gigantic. Big.That will make the fic a LOT shorter and add to the chance of people reading it. I _will_ make it a seperate mini-fic, though, so people can read it if they want. I hope this doesn't create much confusion.**

**THANK YOU SO MUCH, sillydillydylan, FOR REVIEWING!!!!!**

**::dances happily::**

**I still want to know who your favorite Odd is, by the way.**

**1. Rachelle**

**2. Bita**

**3. Tiffany**

**Chapter 36 **

The next day, a Sunday, Tiffany, Rachelle, and Bita avoided their concerned friends as much as possible. Bita stayed in the Hufflepuff dormitory, where no one had heard Rachelle mention that The Odds had paranormal powers and that Zastrin was trying to kill them. Tiffany and Rachelle avoided Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Matt (who was also in Gryffindor) by running out of the common room when one of them turned up and going into crowded places where their friends would never mention their worries for fear of being overheard on something important.

That evening, however, when Tiffany and Rachelle were leaving the now deserted library for the Great Hall long after dinner began so that they were sure everyone was already in the Great Hall, Hermione popped out of a nearby empty class room, grabbed them both, and pulled them in, locking the door behind her.

When Rachelle and Tiffany looked around the empty classroom, they saw that Matt and Jonny were with Hermione; Matt had a look of confusion and curiosity, and Jonny looked extremely worried.

"You've been avoiding us," Hermione said accusingly.

She paused as if waiting for a reply, and then continued when it was obvious that Tiffany and Rachelle weren't going to say anything.

"Now you have no where to go. You _have_ to tell us what's wrong, otherwise I'm not letting anyone out of this room."

Tiffany sighed then began the story of how she, Rachelle, and Bita had been abandoned as babies. This reminder made Rachelle depressed and upset, an emotional trigger, apparently, for her pyrokinesis. She was staring unseeingly at Bita's feet when suddenly, Bita's left shoe burst into flames.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Bita screamed hysterically, staring at her foot. "MY TOES!!!!! SOMEONE SAVE MY TOES!!!!!!!!"

"I'm sorry!" Rachelle said. "I'm really, really, really sorry!"

Bita stomped on her burning shoe with her ok one with vigor, putting out the fire but practically breaking her toes.

"Ow!!" she howled in pain, taking off her burned left shoe and holding her toes affectionately.

Everyone stared at Rachelle for a moment.

"Go on," Rachelle instructed Tiffany, as if the previous incident was just a minor interruption.

Tiffany continued with The Odds' story, ignoring the confusion on the faces of Matt, Jonny, and Hermione. She explained how Mr. Vilner found the girls at an orphanage, recognizing their powers right away. The mention of the word "powers" added to Matt, Jonny, and Hermione's looks of confusion.

"Rachelle is pyrokinetic and has telekinesis, Bita can levitate and astral project, I'm clairvoyant and can read books by touching the cover for a second (I'm not sure if there's a name for that), and we're all telepathic," Tiffany explained.

Matt, Jonny, and Hermione stared at her.

Hermione summed up all of their feelings with one word, "Wow."

Rachelle continued where Tiffany left off, telling about how Zastrin was determined to kill all three girls and somehow make their powers his own. She also told them how Tiffany had a vision of Zastrin finding out that they were at Hogwarts.

After a few moments, Bita said, cheerfully smiling, "And now we're here!" She then began to sway slightly from left to right, still smiling.

Matt looked extremely shocked, as did Jonny. Hermione had a look of dawning comprehension.

"That explains a lot," she said.

"That's…um…neat…about your powers and stuff…" Matt said slowly.

Jonny's shocked expression disappeared and he began to happily sway with Bita; Tiffany raised an eyebrow at them.

"Can you control all of your powers?" Hermione asked after a while.

"Well…the telepathy, my weird reading-power-thingie, Bita's levitation and astral projection, and Rachelle's telekinesis are completely controllable…I get weird visions at random moments and Rachelle's pyrokinesis sometimes acts on it's own accord (as you saw), though," Tiffany said.

There was another long silence, and finally, Rachelle broke it, asking Hermione, "Can we go to dinner now? I'm really hungry."

"Oh, yes, let's go," Hermione said, pulled out of what looked like deep thought.

"Thank you!!" Tiffany said, relieved.

"FOOD!!!" Bita said, almost viciously.

Everyone left the classroom and when the group of friends reached the Great Hall, they split up, Bita going to the Hufflepuff table, Hermione, Tiffany, Rachelle, and Matt going to the Gryffindor table.

At their table, Hermione, Tiffany, Rachelle, and Matt joined Ron and Harry, who had already finished eating and were sitting in front of empty plates.

"_There_ you are! What kept you?"

"Nothing, Ron, I'll explain later," Hermione said, sitting next to him.

"But -" Ron began.

"NOTHING, RON, I'LL EXPLAIN LATER!" Hermione repeated, louder this time.

Ron, looking very scared and confused, looked at Harry, who looked just as scared and confused as he did. 


	37. When it's over, can I still come over?

**Ugh!! Sorry, sillydillydylan, about the confusion...if you go to Chapter 35, it's now Chapter 35, not 36, and I left an A/N for you...**

**And, PrincessLilly, I miss your reviews, so if you're reading this, please review! (Do I sound desperate? I am :-))**

**I have yet to get ONE reply to my question: Who's your favorite Odd?**

**1. Rachelle**

**2. Bita**

**3. Tiffany**

**I'm determined to get at least ONE answer to that, so I won't stop asking until I do. :P**

**OH, and I'm not going to remove the Cantamos part until I finish the whole fic...did I already say that in the last A/N? I don't remember....Oh well.**

**ONE MORE THING, (this is for any Spanish speakers, though I doubt any are reading this...) I typed the end incorrectly because if I typed it correctly, I don't think the special characters (accent marks and upside down question marks) would show up right.**

**Chapter 37 **

After The Odds, Hermione, and Matt finished eating, everyone went back to Gryffindor Tower. When they arrived there they found everyone else was either still in the Great Hall or in the dormitories and Matt – having already heard the whole story – went up to the boys' dormitory, leaving The Odds, Hermione, Harry, and Ron alone in the common room.

"So…what took you so long to get to dinner?" Ron asked Hermione tentatively.

Hermione looked at The Odds, and Rachelle and Tiffany nodded at her. Hermione then turned back to Harry and Ron and explained to them everything that The Odds had explained to her in the empty classroom before they went to dinner – she told them about The Odds' powers, Zastrin, Mr. Vilner, their special school back in America. She only left out the part about them being abandoned, saying that Mr. Vilner found them, but not where. When she was done, the two boys stared at her for a few moments in silence, and Ron burst into laughter.

"You don't actually _believe_ that, right?" he asked Hermione after he had gained control of himself.

"Why would they lie?" Hermione asked, unbelieving of Ron's reaction to the news.

"I dunno…to get us to feel bad for them? But really, that _can't_ be true. It's just…too out there," Ron said.

"Ron, in case you forgot, that's what most would people think if you told them about Hogwarts," Hermione shot back.

Ron turned to Harry, who had been silent the whole time, and asked, "What do _you_ think?"

"Well…it is kind of far-fetched, but what if they _aren't_ lying, Ron? They could be in real danger…" Harry said uncertainly.

Finally, Rachelle – who along with the rest of The Odds had been quietly observing the argument over their credibility – said loudly, "Do you want _proof_?" and stared unblinkingly at a book lying open on a nearby table, concentrating with all of her might, and it burst into flame. Amazingly, the fire stayed burning on the book and didn't spread to the table or anything else.

Ron, who was standing close to the table the book was lying on, moved quickly to the side, expecting the table to catch fire as well. Rachelle blinked and the fire ceased, leaving the book completely unscathed except for the corners, which were slightly singed. She then looked expectantly at Bita, and Bita, not getting the hint, stared back. After a minute or so, Bita wavedenergetically at Rachelle.

"Hi!" said Bita happily.

"Levitate, Bita," Rachelle said impatiently.

"Ohhh, ok!" Bita said cheerfully. She then stared hard at the ground and moved a few inches above it for a few seconds, before letting herself fall back down.

Ron took his eyes off the slightly singed book to stare at Bita's feet.

"_And_ an owl's about to come for you, Hermione, so you might want to open a window…" said Tiffany.

Hermione, without asking any questions, walked briskly over to the other side of the room and opened a window about a foot high. Three minutes later, an owl flew in and landed on windowsill, holding its leg out to Hermione. She opened the letter and quickly read it, sighing with a mixture of affection and slight irritation.

"It's mum and dad, they just want to know how things are going. If only they knew…" Hermione said.

"Wow." Ron said, shocked.

"_Now_ do you believe us?" Rachelle asked.

"So you have powers…that doesn't mean anyone's after you to kill you and steal them," Ron said, quickly reclaiming his doubt.

"But, Ron, it's like Harry said…what if they _are_ telling the truth? It's better to take a chance trusting them than to take a chance and say they're perfectly safe," Hermione said agitatedly.

"Fine, then, Hermione. Now that we've all accepted the fact that they're in danger of being murdered, what can we do? Shall we runaway with them and go to another planet? Would that help?" Ron asked sarcastically.

"We could go to Ckaloatia!" Bita said happily.

Rachelle looked at her and frowned.

"No, we can't," she said sadly.

"Why not?" Tiffany asked.

"Because I left it at home," Rachelle said.

"Ohh," Bita said.

"And…you're _trusting_ these people…" Ron said to Hermione in amazement.

"C'mon, Ron, they're not _that_ bad," Harry said.

"Alo?" Rachelle said to Tiffany.

"Alo?" Tiffany answered.

"Alooo?"

"Alo?"

This continued for a long time, back and forth, between the two friends who seemed to be having a lot of fun.

"Well…_maybe_ they are, sometimes…" Harry said slowly.

Hermione glared at him and Ron. 


	38. And when it's over, is it really over?

**Very short chapter, I know. Be lucky I updated at all during the week. Not that I have many fans waiting in tension after any chapter or anything... :sigh:**

**Chapter 38 **

"So…what are we going to do?" Hermione asked the group.

"Well…. WE COULD GO EAT!" Bita suggested happily.

"Bita…we just ate dinner," Tiffany said.

"So?" Bita asked, sounding upset. "That doesn't mean we can't eat again!"

"Ugh," Tiffany said, rolling her eyes. Then she turned to Hermione and said, trying to make her voice sound calm, "There's nothing we really _can_ do…I guess we should just wait until – I mean, _if_ Zastrin comes to kill us."

"Your visions are never wrong, he's going to come," Rachelle said certainly.

Tiffany looked at her with a tinge of sadness, and didn't say anything.

"Ok, _if_ Zastrin comes after you, we'll help protect you," Hermione said matter-of-factly. She turned to Harry and Ron. "Right?"

"Yeah," said Harry.

Everyone stared at Ron.

"Well it's not like I _want_ you to die, so yeah, I guess…" he said finally.

"Thank you…but we can protect ourselves," Rachelle said.

"Yeah," Tiffany agreed quickly. "We don't want _you_ to be in danger because of us."

"Yeah, the lemons already died!" Bita said, depressed.

"We can't just wait for him to over-power you, though!" Hermione insisted.

"Yes, you can, if we make you," Rachelle said, rather menacingly.

"Whatever, let's just wait to see if it actually happens," Tiffany said, not wanting to talk about it any more.

"Good idea," Rachelle said.

They weren't expecting to have only a day to wait.


	39. When it's over

**Yay! Princesslilly reviewed again! I really thought you had given up on me ever updating...**

**And UGH, I know what you mean with the homework. That's the cause of the long lengths of time between updates.**

**SO ANYWAYS, THANK YOU, LEMON BUTTERFLY AND PRINCESSLILLY FOR VOTING!**

**And, another thing - Princesslilly, you HAVE to be psychic. You've already predicted two things that I plan to do eventually with the fic.**

**Oh yes, and, as you can tell, the fic is at the beginning of the end :)**

**Chapter 39**

The following day began like a regular day. Tiffany and Rachelle went to breakfast together, and when they reached the Great Hall, Rachelle suddenly broke into a run. She ran to an empty space to the left of the Gryffindor table and threw her arms around nothing.

"BOB! YOU'RE BACK!" she yelled happily at the air.

Tiffany gasped and ran towards her.

"HI BOB!" she said, waving enthusiastically at the air Rachelle was hugging.

Rachelle paused for a moment and looked at the air she had just been hugging. After a few moments, she turned to Tiffany.

"Bob says he went after that guy that took your fork, and he brought it to Zastrin. Bob left before he could see what they did with it, though," Rachelle whispered.

"Wow…" Tiffany said for lack of better words.

"Bob, I'm so glad you're back and with the non-hurty-ness!" Rachelle said happily to the air.

By now almost the whole room was staring at them, so Tiffany drug Rachelle to a few empty spots at the Gryffindor table.

"We should tell Bita about…it," Rachelle whispered to Tiffany once they were sitting.

"Why? What's _she_ going to do?" Tiffany asked.

"Oh…good point," said Rachelle.

-

After their morning classes, when Rachelle and Tiffany were going to the Great Hall again for lunch, Tiffany suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway and stared forward. Rachelle looked in the same direction, but didn't see anything that wasn't supposed to be there.

"Tiffany…?" she said, beginning to worry about her friend. "You ok in there?"

Tiffany did nothing but continue to stare straight ahead. Rachelle waved her hand in front of Tiffany's face.

"Yoo hoo! The light is on, but nobody's home!" she said.

Tiffany remained statue-like. Rachelle shook her by the shoulders and began shouting her name.

"TIFFANYYYYYYYY! SPEAK TO MEEEEEEEEE!"

Tiffany suddenly came out of her trance-like state and stared at Rachelle in confusion for a moment. Rachelle stopped shaking her.

"Are you ok?" Rachelle asked.

"Let's go find Bita. He's here."

That was all Rachelle needed to hear from her friend, and the two set off toward the Hufflepuff dormitory. 


	40. That's the time I fall in love again

**Oh, and, I forgot to mention this in the other chapter's author note, but someone who's screen name is Crazy Samurai has me on their favorites list, and if this is you, PLEASE REVIEW! If this is you, and you've already reviewed, just anonymously, please TELL me this is you! More beginning of the end in the following chapter. IT'S ALMOST ALMOST OVER! **

**Chapter 40 **

On their way to the Hufflepuff dormitory, Rachelle and Tiffany ran into Bita – literally. They were turning a corner at the same time Bita was, so Rachelle and Bita crashed into each other. When they recovered, Rachelle grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her roughly.

"BITA. HE'S HERE," she said urgently.

"Really?" Bita said. "IT'S ABOUT TIME. HE'S REALLY LATE."

"Bita…do you know who I'm talking about?" Rachelle asked.

"Maybe…is it one of the lemons?"

"AHHHHHHHH! Bita, she's talking about _Zastrin_," Tiffany said, trying to be patient.

"Ohhh! We should avoid him," Bita said, smiling proudly at her idea.

"Avoid who?" came the voice of Hermione, walking towards them from down the hall.

"Oh no…" Rachelle said, quietly so that only Bita and Tiffany could hear.

"We should lie," Tiffany whispered back quickly.

"Yeah," Rachelle agreed.

"Zastrin!" Bita said loudly across the hall, in answer to Hermione.

Hermione's eyes grew very wide and she broke into a jog.

"Is he…here?" she asked quietly when she reached them.

Tiffany and Rachelle glared at Bita.

"Yes, he's here," Tiffany answered.

"Did you have a vision?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah…kind of…I saw him here, on the grounds," Tiffany said.

"But we don't know what he looks like, how do you know it was Zastrin?" Rachelle asked.

"Well, it was just a kind of blob thing, but I just know it symbolized him," Tiffany explained.

"Oh," said Rachelle.

"What are we going to do?" Hermione asked.

"_You're_ going to go to lunch and pretend you never spoke to us," Tiffany said bluntly.

"Then _you're_ going to go get yourselves killed!" Hermione snapped back.

"We'll be fine, he can't get us as long as we're in the castle," Rachelle told her.

Just then, Professor McGonagall's voice sounded on the overhead speakers and the four girls looked up and the nearest one.

"Attention, all staff and students: Please evacuate the castle in an orderly way and stand outside on the grounds until I say it's safe to return inside. There is a possible danger somewhere in the castle and it would be for the best if you all went outside. Thank you."

The Odds stared at each other in horror.


	41. All the things that I used to say

**Here I am, just having done TWO HOURS of homework on a Friday night, realizing I still have more, and am really tired. Not to mention the fact that I've owned The Sims 2 University for almost three days now and haven't had a chance to play it yet! So, what do I do? I update. You should be happy. Show your happiness through reviewing and voting for your favorite Odd. In fact, if you've already voted but your opinion has changed, vote again.**

**Happy reviewing :-)**

**Chapter 41 **

"But…the danger's out _there_ not in _here_!" Hermione yelled, frustrated, at the overhead speaker as if Professor McGonagall could hear her.

"We could _make_ them let us stay inside," Rachelle said with a demonic gleam flickering in her eyes.

"No…It'll be ok…there'll be TONS of people out there…and besides, it would be better if we found Zastrin instead of Zastrin coming and taking us from the castle. He won't expect us to come right now, so maybe we'll catch him off guard," Tiffany suggested.

"Yeah…" Rachelle agreed slowly. "I guess that's true…"

By this time, people were beginning to fill the halls as they evacuated, confused and frightened. With a last look at one another, the four girls turned and made their way out of the castle, feeling as if they had dropped their shields and weapons right before marching into war.

When they were outside, the four friends found Ron, Harry, Matt, and Jonny standing together and walked over to them.

"Rachelle, Tiffany, and Bita just told me th –" Hermione began, but she was cut off by Tiffany tugging quickly on her sleeve. Tiffany shook her head slightly.

"What?" Ron asked when Hermione didn't finish.

"Nothing, I'll tell you when we get back inside. Let's just…stay close to them," Hermione said, looking at The Odds.

"No need, we can take care of ourselves," Rachelle said rather half-heartedly, knowing that Hermione wasn't going to listen.

Sure enough, Hermione didn't even bother arguing any further.

The two trios stood where they were for a while. When it seemed that they weren't going inside any time soon, Tiffany, Hermione, Rachelle, and Harry sat on the ground while Ron and Bita leaned on against a tree.

After a while more, Tiffany said, "They should be letting us in soon…it's been a long time already…"

The others made sounds of agreement…except for Bita and Ron.

Tiffany looked up at where they had been leaning against the tree to ask, "What do you guys think?" when she stopped and gasped. Her eyes grew wide and Rachelle heard her gasp, saw her gaze, and followed it.

"Oh no…" said Rachelle, her eyes growing like Tiffany's had.

"Why does this keep _happening_?" Tiffany asked angrily. "Never again will I let Bita lean against anything."

Harry and Hermione looked up, too, and saw what Rachelle and Tiffany saw. A tree. Their eyes grew as Rachelle's and Tiffany's had.

"Where'd they go?" Hermione asked, knowing that no one else knew either.

"This _can't_ be good…since when does Hogwarts have portal-trees?" Tiffany said worriedly.

"Never." Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"What do we do?" Rachelle asked.

Tiffany looked at her remaining friends and leaned against the tree. She vanished just as they had at the train station when getting on Platform 9 ¾.

Rachelle stared at the tree for a few moments, managed a weak smile at Harry and Hermione, waved as enthusiastically as possible, and followed Bita, Ron, and Tiffany. Hermione, Matt, Jonny, and Harry were right behind her. Soon, all eight of them were reunited. Unfortunately, they weren't alone…


	42. All the words that got in the way

**Wooo! Another review from PrincessLilly! **

**Ok, so, the story is winding up! It'll be finished this week, I promise, because it's SPRING BREAK! WOOOOOOOOOOO!**

**I love the following chapter, I hope you like it too :)**

**ONCE AGAIN, vote for your favorite Odd, even if you have already and your opinion has changed!**

**And the identity of someone by the penname Crazy Samurai is still unknown, so if you are this person, PLEASE REVIEW!**

Oh, and telepathic messages are in bold.

**Chapter 42 **

Hermione, Matt, Jonny and Harry found themselves inside what looked like a mine. They were in a cave-like room that led down many different halls that looked like the room they were in. They found their friends staring down the hall directly in front of them. Everyone was standing in stunned silence.

"Where are we?" Rachelle asked finally.

"With him," Tiffany said in a tone of calmness that did not fit the topic.

Rachelle's expression grew frantic.

"_How do we get out_?" she asked quietly, in fear of someone hearing her.

"We can't. Not by ourselves, anyways," Tiffany said in the same tone.

"Who do we get to help, then?" Harry asked.

"No one. We'll know what to do by the time we're done…by the time some of us are gone…"

"Do you mean someone is going to _die_?" Rachelle asked incredulously.

"More than one," Tiffany corrected her.

Normally this phrase would have sent Tiffany and Rachelle laughing happily, but not this time. This time the phrase caused a deep, impenetrable silence.

"We might as well go," Tiffany said, walking through a random hall.

"What are we going to go _do_? I hate when you act all mysterious and stuff," Rachelle said.

"We'll do what we have to do and I act how I act," Tiffany answered.

Rachelle sighed and followed Tiffany with the rest of the group behind her.

After they walked for about ten minutes, Tiffany came to a sudden halt and Rachelle almost knocked her over.

"What is it?" Rachelle asked nervously.

Tiffany stared ahead, unblinking. Rachelle stared, too. In front of them was a menacing-looking figured dressed all in black, sitting on what resembled a throne while conversing very quietly to a short, plump woman with ugly dirty blonde hair at his side. They couldn't get a good lookat the two people from this distance and because it was so dark in the cave-like shelter, but The Odds just _knew_ it was Zastrin with one of his assistants, though they had never come face-to-face with him before.

Zastrin and the woman seemed to notice their presence because they suddenly stopped talking to one another and looked down the hall.

"Why, _hello_ dearies!" the woman said in a sickeningly sweet voice. "Come in, come in!"

The group didn't move.

Zastrin seemed as if he wasn't going to go through all of that pretending to be sweet nonsense and just yelled at them.

"Get _over_ here right now or we can just skip to the part where I kill all of you!"

"_Ok_, ok, sheesh," Tiffany said as if she were talking to Mr. Vilner and not The Odds' worst enemy, though Rachelle heard a slight tremble in her voice.

Tiffany led the frightened group to Zastrin and the woman. When they were closer and could see Zastrin's face better, they could see that he looked how they had always pictured villains. He seemed to be tall, but it was hard to tell since he was sitting. He looked like he was in his forties and had a very scarred face. This was exactly how they pictured villains in all of the books they read…they never thought that they'd be face to face with one of those villains, fearing for their own lives like the heroes and heroines in the books did. Even though Mr. Vilner had warned them numerous times of Zastrin's danger, they never truly thought they'd have to fight him for their lives.

Zastrin suddenly smiled as they approached and looked at someone in the group. No one could tell for sure who he was looking at, at first, because the group stuck very close together in their fear.

"You did well, Alfonso," Zastrin said, still looking at someone in the group.

"What…? We don't know an –" Tiffany began, but stopped as Jonny walked forward.

Everyone was too stunned to speak.

"It was easy…" Jonny told Zastrin, trying to sound modest.

"You're…" Rachelle began, but her voice faded into nothingness.

"Why?" Tiffany asked, glaring at him.

"Zastrin said he was going to give us, his assistants, any more powers he steals," Jonny (now known as Alfonso) said.

"No, he's going to keep them for himself!" Rachelle said.

"Why would he? He already _has_ other powers he's stolen," Alfonso said.

"Actually…the girl is right," Zastrin said.

Alfonso turned to him. "_What?_" he asked incredulously.

"I _do_ have powers, but the more I get, the more I can control them," Zastrin explained.

"But…you said you would go into training!" Alfonso said.

"Oh, it's _so_ much faster this way! Don't worry though, I'll give the next ones to you. I promise," Zastrin said, smiling wickedly.

Bita burst into tears.

"That means I really am the last lemon, and I'm going to die!" she cried.

Tiffany and Rachelle glared at Alfonso and Rachelle went to comfort Bita.

"That must mean you've been spying on us…that's how you got _Alfonso_ here to get to Bita," Tiffany said.

"I've been getting inside information, actually," said Zastrin. "But enough talk! We need to get some business taken care of…Lisa and I -," he motioned to the woman next to him, "will lead the way and Alfonso will stay behind you all."

Alfonso glared at Zastrin, but took his place behind the group. Rachelle brought Bita to the front of the group next to Tiffany and The Odds led the way. They followed Zastrin down the hall they had come, into the big cave-like room where they started, and down another hall. When they began walking down the other hall, Tiffany motioned Rachelle and Bita to stay where they were and slipped to the back of the group.

"I can't _believe_ you," she said, disgusted, to Alfonso once she had gone to the back of the group. "Don't you have parents or some kind of family? What do _they_ think about this?"

"No, I'm an orphan like you…One of Zastrin's assistants took me in like Mr. Vilner took you guys in…I've never had a chance to help out before. Until now, Zastrin thought I was too young to be of any use," he talked as if talking to himself and not Tiffany.

"_Helping_? Pretending to be nice in order to lead a bunch of girls to their deaths? Who is that possibly _helping_?" Tiffany asked.

"I don't know! This is just how I was brought up, knowing that eventually I'd do something like this. What else was I supposed to do? I didn't have a choice. I'm really sorry…you and the other ones might not believe it, but I am. Zastrin's _already_ powerful…after he gets your powers he might be powerful enough to take over the planet. Do you really think I'm looking forward to that?"

"If you want to help, help us escape. If you don't want the world taken over or possibly destroyed by Zastrin, please."

Alfonso looked sadly at the rest of the group.

"Ok," he said.

Tiffany slipped back to the front of the group where Bita was still crying and Rachelle was still trying to comfort her.

"It's going to be ok. We'll get out of this soon," she whispered so no one else heard her.

They suddenly stopped as Zastrin and Lisa stopped in another cave-like room. This room was filled with equipment that the group had never seen before in their lives and didn't want to know what it was for.

"Here we will perform the ritual. The ritual must be done before we can kill you," Zastrin explained as if he were giving some kind of tour.

Tiffany glanced back at Alfonso who was looking at one of the walls of the cave nervously.

"Now, you all stay here, and Lisa and I will go prepare for the ritual. And…don't try to escape. You can't," Zastrin said with an evil chuckle.

When Zastrin and Lisa walked away from them to the far side of the room, Tiffany went back to where Alfonso was standing.

"So? Any ideas?" she whispered.

"Yeah…that wall over there -," he pointed to the wall he had been looking nervously at before, "has a secret door that blends in. It's your only hope. It's the only way out of here…but I'll have to open it for you. It only opens for Zastrin or one of his assistants. We'll have to go now, while they're preparing."

"Are you going to come with us?" Tiffany asked him.

"No, I can't. All of Zastrin's assistants have a tracking device implanted somewhere, in case we all leave Zastrin to go tell the world his secrets. He's really paranoid…He'll find you if I go," said Alfonso.

"But he'll know that you helped us!" Tiffany exclaimed.  
"No, I'll come up with something…just worry about getting out of here alive," he said, smiling weakly.

Tiffany went back to the front of the group and sent telepathic messages to Rachelle and Bita about the plan.

**Won't Zastrin kill Alfonso, though?** Rachelle asked.

**He'll be fine, don't worry**, Tiffany answered.

**How are we gonna do this?** Rachelle asked, wanting to change the subject.

**No one's watching us because Zastrin doesn't think we know about the door…so let's go to wall and the rest will follow**, Tiffany sent.

**Ok**, Rachelle sent.

With a deep breath, Rachelle, Tiffany, and Bita made their way over to the nearest wall and edged toward the wall Alfonso had said held the door. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Matt seemed to catch on and hurried quietly towards them, though they looked slightly confused.

**What if Alfonso's just trying to trick us?** Rachelle asked suddenly.

**He's not, don't worry**, Tiffany sent surely.

Alfonso was the last one to go over to where The Odds were standing. He led the rest of the way to the secret door and stopped.

"Here it is," he said so quietly that they almost didn't hear him.

He placed a hand on the wall and a section of it slid silently open. It led into complete blackness.

"Just keep going down this tunnel and you'll get to the grounds. Don't worry, you'll be fine. I promise," he added when he saw their looks of uncertainty.

Matt went in first, followed by Hermione, Ron, and Harry. The Odds stayed behind for a few moments.

"Thanks…we would have died without you," Rachelle whispered.

"You're not evil after all!" Bita said happily, the hugged him.

"Good luck," said Tiffany. She was starting to feel guilty, putting Alfonso in danger so she and the rest could escape.

The Odds went inside the tunnel but didn't move forward.

"Hurry up," Alfonso rushed them. "Really, don't worry! We'll all be fine."

"You should come with us…we'll find someone to take out the tracking implant…it'll be safer!" Rachelle said.

"No, I have to stay here. That'll be safer for _you_."

"How do we close the door?" Tiffany asked suddenly.

"I'll close it behind you, just -," began Alfonso, but he was cut off.

"What…ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRH! HE'S LETTING THEM GO!" screamed the voice of Zastrin.

"GO!" Tiffany, who was the last in the tunnel, yelled at everyone.

Before they even had a chance to turn around to face the front of the tunnel, however, a long, pointy knife flew right past the entrance to the secret tunnel that led out of Zastrin's lair. It was apparently controlled by telekinesis. The Odds gasped as the knife hit Alfonso right in his heart area. He fell to the ground and stopped breathing.

The Odds stared at his unmoving figure, completely shocked.

"Go!" Tiffany yelled again, yet less loudly than the first time and with a shaky voice.

Everyone moved forward through the tunnel, and suddenly Zastrin and Lisa appeared at the entrance.

"We can still get them!" Zastrin said, and climbed into the tunnel with Lisa right behind him.


	43. All the things that I used to know

**BASKERDOPLY!**

**Chapter 43 **

Hermione, Ron, Harry, Matt, and The Odds continued to run through the tunnel with Zastrin and Lisa far behind them. Matt was leading the group with Hermione behind him, Harry behind her, and Ron behind them with Bita, Rachelle, and Tiffany at the end.

Suddenly, Matt stopped and pushed himself against the tunnel wall, letting everyone else pass him and running again behind Tiffany so he could make sure everyone was ok.

The group ran faster when they heard Zastrin's maniacal laugh bounce loudly off of the walls. Zastrin would have attacked them if the tunnel had been straight and not bendy.

After a few more minutes of running, the end of the tunnel was finally in sight and the tunnel grew brighter and bend-less. They could almost see the Hogwarts grounds beyond…

Hermione, Ron, and Harry ran faster than The Odds and Matt, so they reached the end much quicker. When Hermione, Ron, and Harry were all out of the tunnel, they turned around and saw that Zastrin and Lisa had just made it around the last bend and were now behind The Odds and Matt in the straight part.

"Hurry up, he's right behind you!" Ron yelled at them.

Rachelle seemed to remember at that moment that she had dangerous powers. She put her hand behind her in the direction of Zastrin and Lisa. Tiffany, knowing what was coming, moved out of the way just as fire shot from Rachelle's hand toward the evil ones.

There was a scream behind them and they knew that Lisa had been hit with fire. Rachelle shot more fire and another yell of pain, coming from a male voice this time, told them that Zastrin had been hurt. Though both enemies had been hit, Rachelle continued shooting fire until she and the rest of The Odds were out of the tunnel.

When they were safely out of the tunnel, they hoped desperately that it would close and miraculously, it did. They noticed that the other students and faculty had gone back inside the castle since the grounds were deserted. The sky was pitch black, but it had been light when they went inside the tree. Everyone looked around at everyone else. All of them were full of scratches, bumps, bruises, ripped clothing, and dirt.

Harry's eyes suddenly grew wide.

"Where's Matt?" he asked.

Sure enough, Matt was nowhere to be seen. Rachelle gasped.

"No," Tiffany said, knowing what Rachelle was thinking. "It wasn't you…he probably just got caught by Zastrin or something…and if he did, Zastrin has no reason to kill him."

_Or to keep him alive_, she thought to herself, but she'd never say that to Rachelle.

Rachelle remained quiet.

"What should we do?" Harry asked.

"There's nothing we _can_ do," Tiffany said sadly. "I guess we should just go back to the castle, we're probably being missed by now…"

The rest of the group silently agreed and walked towards the castle, feeling like a funeral procession.


	44. Have gone out the window

**The end is near...**

**Chapter 44 **

The group of friends walked into the castle and past a few people on their way to Dumbledore's office. They ignored things like, "Where've you _been_?" and, "You look really bad."

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of walking, the group reached Dumbledore's office just as Professor McGonagall walked out. She gasped when she saw them.

"You children look _terrible_! What happened?"

"We were just coming to see Dumbledore," Hermione said wearily.

"I just finished talking to him, follow me," Professor McGonagall said and led them up the spiral staircase to Dumbledore's office.

When Professor McGonagall knocked on Dumbledore's door and he let them in, they all sat down. Hermione started to tell Dumbledore what had happened that day even though he hadn't asked.

Everyone except Bita and Rachelle took turns telling the story when the person talking started to look too tired to continue. Finally, Tiffany – the last person to speak – told about how Matt was still in the now closed tunnel.

Everyone was silent after that and Professor McGonagall looked pale.

"I'm sure that Zastrin won't attempt to harm you for a while, now…Not now that he knows that you three can protect yourselves," Dumbledore said, finally breaking the silence. "I will call Mr. Vilner and inform him of what's happened. Now, Professor McGonagall, could you please bring all of these children to the hospital wing so Madam Pomfrey can look them over?"

"Yes…but what about Matthew?" Professor McGonagall asked worriedly.

"I will contact his parents and inform them that he's missing," Dumbledore said solemnly. "Simply missing. We have no proof that he's been killed yet."

"Alright…I'm sure they'll come as quickly as they can, so I'll be right back to help you with them," Professor McGonagall said.

She looked back at the group and sighed. She motioned for them to follow her out of Dumbledore's office and to the hospital wing. When they arrived at the hospital wing, she left them with Madam Pomfrey and went back to Dumbledore's office.

"Oh, dear…it's very lucky not many people have been sick or injured lately," Madam Pomfrey said, more to herself than The Odds, Hermione, Ron, and Harry.

They looked around and saw that she was right – there were plenty of beds for all of them.

Once Madam Pomfrey had assigned everyone their own bed and left to get medicine for everyone's cuts and other various minor injuries, Rachelle turned to Tiffany, who was in the bed to the right of her own.

"Dumbledore didn't say too much, did he?" Rachelle, who had been completely silent since they left the tunnel, said quietly.

"Well he doesn't know too much about our case, does he?" Tiffany said.

"Yeah…we were really lucky that the tunnel closed behind us, weren't we?"

"Actually I think the tunnel is controlled by our thoughts…why else would it lead to the Hogwarts grounds?" Tiffany said.

"It wasn't your fault. I'm sure it wasn't," she added after Rachelle was silent again for a while.

"Yeah…"

"Enough chit-chat, you all need rest!" Madam Pomfrey said as she came back into the room with medicine.

After she had cleaned everyone's injuries, she turned off the lights and left the room again. Though they thought it would be difficult, it didn't take long for everyone to fall asleep.


	45. Chapter of the endyness

**Since this is the last chapter, I feel I should give a short speech...**

**One day, a long time ago, I decided to write a fic with The Odds. Rachelle promised to help me, and she's helped so much since then! **

**This fic has come a long way...you all should be very happy that I decided to delete the old one, change my penname, change my e-mail, change the title, and start over completely.**

**I realized, even though the fic only had one negative review, that it's a very bad sign if the author is too embarrassed to even read it. **

**I'd like to thank you, reviewers! An especially big thank you to those who've been reviewing for a while and have checked back for updates! DOOM on those reviewers who reviewed once then never read it again. DOOM ON YOU.**

**In closing...**

**So if you Enjoyed this Quacky, Unique, Ended story, Look out (and review)!**

**:runs away sobbing as the fic ends:**

**Chapter 45 **

Sometime during the night – no one ever knew the exact time because no one thought to look at a clock – a thunderstorm crashed so loudly overhead that Tiffany woke up.

She groaned and turned on her side to face Rachelle's bed, keeping her eyes closed, trying to fall asleep again. She heard something thump against the floor and her eyes fluttered open on impulse. She would have closed them again, had she not seen what she saw.

Tiffany gasped loudly when she saw Matt's collapsed form on the floor between Rachelle's bed and her own bed. She turned on the lamp next to her bed, took the book that was lying near it and threw it at Rachelle. Rachelle gasped in pain.

"Ooow! What is it?" she asked sleepily.

"Look!" Tiffany said, pointing at Matt on the floor.

Rachelle looked and screamed. Tiffany almost screamed too, now that she saw Matt in the light.

Matt was lying face up with his eyes halfway closed and was barely breathing. He had burns and deep cuts all over and his clothes were torn to shreds. He looked as if he were on the brink of death.

After Rachelle screamed, everyone else woke up, too. They all rushed over to see what Tiffany and Rachelle had gotten out of bed by this time to look at.

Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Bita's reactions were pretty much the same as Tiffany's and Rachelle's. Everyone knelt down in a squished circle around Matt since there wasn't that much room between Rachelle's bed and Tiffany's bed.

Matt gasped for air and attempted to speak. Everyone leaned in closer to hear him so he didn't have to strain.

"Zastrin…alive…good luck."

Rachelle stood and left to get help. When she came back with a confused and worried-looking Madam Pomfrey, she led her over to where Matt and everyone else was. At that moment, Matt stopped breathing and stared forever unseeingly at the ceiling.

* * *

The next few weeks passed by as a blur. Final exams weren't canceled after all, since mostly everything the students were supposed to learn had been covered, despite the set-back of having The Odds transfer not having learned anything everyone else learned the past two years. Though final exams still took place, The Odds, Hermione, Ron, and Harry were exempt because of what had happened. 

After that, when it was time for the end-of-the-year feast, The Odds stayed in their dormitories despite the fact that Hermione had tried to talk them into going. They liked people even less than usual after seeing two of their new friends die.

Finally, it was time to go home. The site of the train that would lead them away from where such terrible things had happened was more than welcome to The Odds. They boarded the train and sat in a compartment with Hermione, Ron, and Harry as they waited for it to start moving.

Tiffany sighed and said, "So…I guess all we have left to do is wait until something happens again…"

"I guess…" Bita agreed slowly. She was silent for a few moments. Suddenly, she said, "I'm h-". 


End file.
